CHIPS 


A    GERMAN   WORKSHOP. 


MAX  MULLER,   M.  A., 

FELLOW    OP   ALL    SOULS    COLLEGE,    OXFORD. 


VOLUME  1L 
ESSAYS  ON  MYTHOLOGY,  TBADITiONS,  AND  CUSTOMS. 


NEW  YORK: 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

1890. 

[Published  by  arrangement  with  die  Author.] 


Hi  VERBID  J,  CAMBRIDGE: 

•TXBXOTTPED    AND    PRINTED    3V 

a.  o.  HOCQUTON  AM>  OOMPAMT. 


StacK 
Annex 

5013665 


To 

JACOB   BERNAYS, 

PROFESSOR  IN   TUB   UNIVERSITY  OF  BONK 
IN  MEMORY   OF  HAPPY  HOURS. 


CONTENTS   OF  SECOND  VOLUME. 


PAGE 

XVI.    COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY,  1856 1 

XVII.    GREEK  MYTHOLOGY,  1858 142 

XVIII.    GREEK  LEGENDS,  1867 154 

XIX.    BELLEROPHON,  1855        .......  170 

XX.    THE  NORSEMEN  IN  ICELAND,  1858 187 

XXI.    FOLK-LORE,  1863 .        .  195 

XXII.    ZULU  NURSERY  TALES,  1867 206 

XXIII.  POPULAR  TALES  FROM  THK  NORSE,  1859      .       .       .  217 

XXIV.  TALES  OF  THE  WEST  HIGHLANDS,  1861  .       .       .       .237 
XXV.    ON  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS,  1865        ....  248 

XXVI.    OUR  FIGURES,  1363 284 

XXVII.    CASTE,  1853 295 

IJIDKX    .                      865 


XVI. 

COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 


Phcedros.  Dost  thou  see  that  very  tall  plane-tree? 

Soknitcs.  Certainly  I  do. 

Pluedros.  Tl«ere  is  shade  there,  and  the  wind  is  not  too  strong,  and  then 
is  grass  to  sit,  or.il'  we  like,  to  lie  down. 

Sukriittt.  Lead  on  then ! 

riiiulrus.  Tell  me.  Sokrates,  is  it  not  from  some  place  here  they  s»y 
that  Boreas  <;arried  away  Oreithyia  from  the  Ilissos? 

Sukrales.  So  the}'  say. 

Plueilros.  Should  it  not  be  fr  <m  this  spot?  for  the  waters  seem  so  lovely, 
and  pure,  and  transparent,  and  as  if  made  for  girls  to  play  on  the  bank. 

Sokrafat.  No  ;  it  is  two  or  three  stadia  further  down,  where  you  cross  over 
to  the  temple  of  Agra,  — and  tltere  you  find,  somewhere,  an  altar  of  Boreas. 

Plicedros.  I  was  not  aware  of  this.  But  tell  me,  by  Zeus,  0  Sokrates, 
—  dost  thou  believe  this  myth  to  be  true? 

Sckriites.  Well,  if  I  did  not  believe  it,  like  the  wise  people,  I  should  not  be 
so  very  far  wrong;  and  I  might  set  up  an  ingenious  theory  and  say  that  a 
gust  of  Boreas,  the  Northwind,  carried  her  down  from  the  rocks  in  the 
neighborhood,  while  she  was  playing  with  her  friend  Pharmakeia ;  and 
that,  having  died  in  this  manner,  she  was  reported  to  have  been  carried  off 
by  Boreas  from  thence,  or  from  the  Ares  peak,  —  for  there  goes  also  this 
story,  that  shu  was  carried  off  from  that,  and  not  from  this  spot.  As  to  my- 
self, Pluedros,  I  think  these  explanations,  on  the  whole,  very  pleasant;  but 
they  require  a  man  of  strong  mind  and  hard  work,  and  a  man  who,  after 
all,  is  not  much  to  be  envied,  if  it  were  only  for  this,  that  when  he  has  set 
light  this  one  fable,  he  is  bound  to  do  the  same  for  the  form  of  the  Hippo- 
kentanrs,  and  again  for  that  of  the  Chimicra.  And  then  a  host  of  such 
beings  rushes  in, — Gorgons  and  Pegasos,  and  masses  of  other  hopeless 
beings,  and  absurdities  of  monstrous  creatures.  And  if  a  man,  not  believing 
in  the  existence  of  these  creatures,  should  try  to  represent  each  according  to 
the  probable  explanation,  dealing  in  a  rough  kind  of  philosophy,  he  would 
require  abundance  of  leisure-  ,1,  at  least,  haw  no  time  to  spare  for  thew 

VOL.    II.  1 


2  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

things,  ana  the  reason,  my  friend,  is  this,  that  I  cannot  yet,  according  to  the 
Delphic  line,  know  myself;  and  it  seems  to  me  ridiculous  that  a  man  who 
does  not  yet  know  this,  should  trouble  himself  about  what  does  not  concern 
him.  Therefore  I  leave  those  things  alone,  and,  believing  what  other  peopl« 
believe  about  them,  I  meditate,  as  I  said  just  now,  not  on  them,  but  on 
myself,  —  whether  I  be  a  monster  more  complicated  and  more  savage  than 
Typhon,  or  a  tamer  and  simpler  creature,  enjoying  by  nature  a  blessed  and 
modest  lot.  But  while  we  are  tslHnjf.  *ny  friend,  was  not  this  the  tree  tc 
which  thou  wert  to  lead  us? 
Phcedros.  This  is  the  very  tree. 

THIS  passage,  from  the  Introduction  of  Plato's  "  Pha&- 
dros,"  has  been  frequently  quoted  in  order  to  show 
what  the  wisest  of  the  Greeks  thought  about  the 
rationalists  of  his  day.  There  were  at  Athens  then,  as 
there  have  been  at  all  times  and  in  all  countries,  men 
who  had  no  sense  for  the  miraculous  and  supernatural, 
and  who,  without  having  the  moral  courage  to  deny 
altogether  what  they  could  not  bring  themselves  to  be- 
lieve, endeavored  to  find  some  plausible  explanation  by 
which  the  sacred  legends  which  tradition  had  handed 
down  to  them,  and  which  had  been  hallowed  by  re- 
ligious observances,  and  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of 
the  law,  might  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  dic- 
tates of  reason  and  the  laws  of  nature.  That  Sokrates, 
though  himself  accused  of  heresy,  did  not  entertain  a 
very  high  opinion  of  these  speculators,  —  that  he 
thought  their  explanations  more  incredible  and  ab- 
surd than  even  the  most  incredible  absurdities  of 
Greek  mythology,  —  nay,  that  at  a  certain  period  of  his 
life  he  treated  such  attempts  as  impious,  is  clear  from 
this  and  other  passages  of  Plato  and  Xenophon. 

But  if  Mr.  Grote,  in  his  classical  work  on  the  "  His- 
tory of  Greece,"  avails  himself  of  this  and  similar  pas> 
sages,  in  order  to  introduce,  as  it  were,  Sokrates 
himself  among  the  historians  and  critics  of  our  own 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  O 

time,  —  if  he  endeavors  to  make  him  bear  witness  "  to 
the  uselessness  of  digging  for  a  supposed  basis  of  truth  " 
in  the  myths  of  the  Greek  world,  he  makes  the  ancient 
philosopher  say  more  than  he  really  said.  Our  object 
in  considering  the  myths  of  the  Greeks,  or  any  other 
nation  of  antiquity,  is  so  different  from  that  of  Sokrates, 
that  the  objections  which  he  urged  against  his  rational- 
izing contemporaries  could  hardly  be  said  to  apply  to 
us.  For  what  is  it  that  makes  us  at  the  present  day 
ask  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  Greek  myths  ? 
Why  do  men  study  ancient  history,  acquire  a  knowl- 
edge of  dead  languages,  and  decipher  illegible  inscrip- 
tions ?  What  inspires  them  with  an  interest  not  only 
in  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome,  but  of  ancient 
India  and  Persia,  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia  ?  Why  do 
the  puerile  and  often  repulsive  legends  of  savage  tribes 
rivet  their  attention  and  engage  their  thoughts  ?  Have 
we  not  been  told  that  there  is  more  wisdom  in  "The 
Times  "  than  in  Thukydides  ?  Are  not  the  novels  of 
Walter  Scott  more  amusing  than  Apollodoros  ?  or  the 
works  of  Bacon  more  instructive  than  the  cosmogony 
of  the  Purawas?  What,  then,  gives  life  to  the  study 
of  antiquity?  What  compels  men,  in  the  midst  of 
these  busy  times,  to  sacrifice  their  leisure  to  studies 
apparently  so  unattractive  and  useless,  if  not  the  con- 
viction, that  in  order  to  obey  the  Delphic  command- 
ment,—  in  order  to  know  what  Man  is,  we  ought  to 
know  what  Man  has  been?  This  is  a  view  as  foreign 
to  the  mind  of  Sokrates  as  any  of  the  principles  of  in- 
ductive philosophy  by  which  men  like  Columbus, 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Copernicus,  Kepler,  Bacon,  and 
Galileo  regenerated  and  invigorated  the  intellectual  life 
of  modern  Europe.  If  we  grant  to  Sokrates  that  the 


4  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

chief  object  of  philosophy  is  that  man  should  know 
himself,  we  should  hardly  consider  his  means  of  arriv- 
ing at  this  knowledge  adequate  to  so  high  an  aim.  To 
his  mind  man  was  preeminently  the  individual,  without 
any  reference  to  its  being  but  one  manifestation  of  a 
power,  or,  as  he  might  have  said,  of  an  idea,  realized 
in  and  through  an  endless  variety  of  human  souls.  He 
is  ever  seeking  to  solve  the  mystery  of  human  nature 
by  brooding  over  his  own  mind,  by  watching  the  secret 
workings  of  the  soul,  by  analyzing  the  organs  of  knowl- 
edge, and  by  trying  to  determine  their  proper  limits; 
and  thus  the  last  result  of  his  philosophy  was,  that  he 
knew  but  one  thing,  and  this  was,  that  he  knew  noth- 
ing. To  us,  man  is  no  longer  this  solitary  being,  com- 
plete in  itself,  and  self-sufficient ;  man  to  us  is  a  brother 
among  brothers,  a  member  of  a  class,  of  a  genus,  or  a 
kind,  and  therefore  intelligible  only  with  reference  to 
his  equals.  The  earth  was  unintelligible  to  the  an- 
cients, because  looked  upon  as  a  solitary  being,  without 
a  peer  in  the  whole  universe  ;  but  it  assumed  a  new 
and  true  significance  as  soon  as  it  rose  before  the  eyes 
of  man  as  one  of  many  planets,  all  governed  by  the 
same  laws,  and  all  revolving  around  the  same  centre. 
It  is  the  same  with  the  human  soul,  and  its  nature 
stands  before  our  mind  in  quite  a  different  light  since 
man  has  been  taught  to  know  and  feel  himself  as  a 
member  of  one  great  family, — as  one  of  the  myriads 
of  wandering  stars,  all  governed  by  the  same  laws, 
and  all  revolving  around  the  same  centre,  and  all  de- 
riving their  light  from  the  same  source.  The  history 
of  the  world,  or,  as  it  is  called,  "  Universal  His- 
tory," has  laid  open  new  avenues  of  thought,  and  it 
has  .enriched  our  language  with  a  word  w.hich  never 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  5 

passed  the  lips  of  Sokrates,  or  Plato,  or  Aristotle,  — 
mankind.1  Where  the  Greek  saw  barbarians,  we  see 
brethren ;  where  the  Greek  saw  heroes  and  demi-gods, 
we  see  our  parents  and  ancestors  ;  where  the  Greek  saw 
nations  (e^vr/),  we  see  mankind,  toiling  and  suffering, 
separated  by  oceans,  divided  by  language,  and  severed 
by  national  enmity,  —  yet  evermore  tending,  under  a 
divine  control,  towards  the  fulfillment  of  that  inscruta- 
ble purpose  for  which  the  world  was  created,  and  man 
placed  in  it,  bearing  the  image  of  God.  History, 
therefore,  with  its  dusty  and  mouldering  pages,  is  to 
us  as  sacred  a  volume  as  the  book  of  nature.  In  both 
we  read,  or  we  try  to  read,  the  reflex  of  the  laws  and 
thoughts  of  a  Divine  Wisdom.  As  we  acknowledge 
no  longer  in  nature  the  working  of  demons  or  the 
manifestation  of  an  evil  principle,  so  we  deny  in  history 
an  atomistic  conglomerate  of  chances,  or  the  despotic 
rule  of  a  mute  fate.  We  believe  that  there  is  nothing 
irrational  in  either  history  or  nature,  and  that  the 
human  mind  is  called  upon  to  read  and  to  revere,  in 
both  the  manifestations  of  a  Divine  Power.  Hence, 
even  the  most  ancient  and  shattered  pages  of  traditions 
are  dear  to  us,  nay  dearer,  perhaps,  than  the  more  co- 
pious chapters  of  modern  times.  The  history  of  those 
distant  ages  and  distant  men  —  apparently  so  foreign 
to  our  modern  interests  —  assumes  a  new  charm  as 
soon  as  we  know  that  it  tells  us  the  story  of  our  own 
i  ace,  of  our  own  family,  —  nay,  of  our  own  selves. 
Sometimes,  when  opening  a  desk  which  we  have  not 
opened  for  many  years,  —  when  looking  over  letters 
which  we  have  not  read  for  many  years,  we  read  on 
for  some  time  with  a  cold  indifference,  and  though  we 
see  if;  is  our  own  handwriting,  and  though  we  meet 

1  See  Cicero,  Tusc.  Dup.  v.  37. 


6  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

with  names  once  familiar  to  our  heart,  yet  we  can 
hardly  believe  that  we  wrote  these  letters,  that  we  felt 
those  pangs,  that  we  shared  in  those  delights,  till  at 
last  the  past  draws  near  and  we  draw  near  to  the  past, 
and  our  heart  grows  warm,  and  we  feel  again  as  we  felt 
of  old,  and  we  know  that  these  letters  were  our  letters. 
It  is  the  same  in  reading  ancient  history.  At  first  it 
seems  something  strange  and  foreign ;  but  the  more  in- 
tensely we  read,  the  more  our  thoughts  are  engaged 
and  our  feelings  warmed ;  and  the  history  of  those 
ancient  men  becomes,  as  it  were,  our  own  history, 
—  their  sufferings  our  sufferings,  —  their  joys  our  joys. 
Without  this  sympathy,  history  is  a  dead  letter,  and 
might  as  well  be  burnt  and  forgotten  ;  while,  if  it  is  once 
enlivened  by  this  feeling,  it  appeals  not  only  to  the  an- 
tiquarian, but  to  the  heart  of  every  man. 

We  find  ourselves  on  a  stage  on  which  many  acts 
have  been  acted  before  us,  and  where  we  are  suddenly 
called  to  act  our  own  part.  To  know  the  part  which  we 
have  to  act  ourselves,  we  ought  to  know  the  character 
of  those  whose  place  we  take.  We  naturally  look  back 
to  the  scenes  on  which  the  curtain  of  the  past  has  fallen, 
for  we  believe  that  there  ought  to  be  one  thought  per- 
vading the  whole  drama  of  mankind.  And  here  His- 
tory steps  in,  and  gives  us  the  thread  which  connects 
the  present  with  the  past.  Many  scenes,  it  is  true,  are 
lost  beyond  the  hope  of  recovery  ;  and  the  most  inter- 
esting, the  opening  scenes  of  the  childhood  of  the  hu- 
man race,  are  known  to  us  by  small  fragments  only. 
But  for  this  very  reason  the  antiquarian,  if  he  descries 
a  relic  of  those  early  times,  grasps  it  with  the  eagerness 
of  a  biographer  who  finds  unexpectedly  some  scraps 
written  by  his  hero  when  yet  a  child  —  entirely  him- 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  7 

self,  and  before  the  shadows  of  life  had  settled  on  his 
brow.  In  whatever  language  it  may  be  written,  every 
line,  every  word,  is  welcome,  that  bears  the  impress  of 
the  early  days  of  mankind.  In  our  museums  we  col- 
lect the  rude  playthings  of  our  hero's  boyhood,  and  we 
try  to  guess  from  their  colossal  features  the  thoughts  of 
the  mind  which  they  once  reflected.  Many  things  are 
still  unintelligible  to  us,  and  the  hieroglyphic  language 
of  antiquity  records  but  half  of  the  mind's  unconscious 
intentions.  Yet  more  and  more  the  image  of  man,  in 
whatever  clime  we  meet  him,  rises  before  us,  noble  and 
pure  from  the  very  beginning :  even  his  errors  we 
learn  to  understand,  —  even  his  dreams  we  begin  to 
interpret.  As  far  as  we  can  trace  back  the  footsteps 
of  man,  even  on  the  lowest  strata  of  history,  we  see 
that  the  divine  gift  of  a  sound  and  sober  intellect  be- 
longed to  him  from  the  very  first ;  and  the  idea  of  a 
humanity  emerging  slowly  from  the  depths  of  an  an- 
imal brutality  can  never  be  maintained  again.  The 
earliest  work  of  art  wrought  by  the  human  mind,  — 
more  ancient  than  any  literary  document,  and  prior 
even  to  the  first  whisperings  of  tradition,  —  the  human 
language,  forms  an  uninterrupted  chain  from  the  first 
dawn  of  history  down  to  our  own  times.  We  still 
speak  the  language  of  the  first  ancestors  of  our  race  ; 
and  this  language,  with  its  wonderful  structure,  bears 
witness  against  such  gratuitous  imputations.  The  for- 
mation of  language,  the  composition  of  roots,  the  grad- 
ual discrimination  of  meanings,  the  systematic  elabora- 
tion of  grammatical  forms,  —  all  this  working  which  we 
can  still  see  under  the  surface  of  our  own  speech,  at- 
tests from  the  very  first  the  presence  of  a  rational  mind 
—  of  an  artist  as  great,  at  least,  as  his  work. 


8  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

The  period,  during  which  expressions  were  coined 
for  the  most  necessary  ideas,  —  such  as  pronouns, 
prepositions,  numerals,  and  the  household  words  of  the 
simplest  life,  —  a  period  to  which  we  must  assign  the 
first  beginnings  of  a  free  and,  as  yet,  hardly  agglutin- 
ative grammar,  —  a  grammar  not  impressed  with  any 
individual  or  national  peculiarities,  yet  containing  the 
germs  of  all  the  Turanian,  as  well  as  the  Aryan  and 
Semitic  forms  of  speech,  —  this  period  forms  the  first 
in  the  history  of  man,  —  the  first,  at  least,  to  which 
even  the  keenest  eye  of  the  antiquarian  and  the  phi- 
losopher can  reach,  —  and  we  call  it  the  "Rhematic 
Period." 

This  is  succeeded  by  a  second  period,  during  which 
we  must  suppose  that  at  least  two  families  of  language 
left  the  simply  agglutinative,  or  nomadic  stage  of  gram- 
mar, and  received,  once  for  all,  that  peculiar  impress 
of  their  formative  system  which  we  still  find  in  all  the 
dialects  and  national  idioms  comprised  under  the  names 
of  "  Semitic  "  and  "  Aryan,"  as  distinguished  from 
the  "  Turanian,''  the  latter  retaining  to  a  much  later 
period,  and  in  some  instances  to  the  present  day,  that 
agglutinative  reprodnctiveness  which  has  rendered  a 
traditional  and  metamorphic  system  of  grammar  im- 
possible, or  has  at  least  considerably  limited  its  extent. 
Hence  we  do  not  find  in  the  nomadic  or  Turanian  lan- 
guages —  scattered  from  China  to  the  Pyrenees,  from 
Capo  Comorin,  across  the  Caucasus,  to  Lapland  —  that 
traditional  family  likeness  which  enables  us  to  treat  the 
Teutonic,  Celtic,  Slavonic,  Italic,  Hellenic,  Iranic,  and 
Indie  languages  on  one  side  an(j  ^]ie  Arabian,  Ara- 

o       o  * 

mean,  and  Hebrew  dialects  on  the  other,  as  mere  va- 
rieties of  two  specific  forms  of  speech,  in  which,  at  a 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  9 

very  early  period,  and  through  influences  decidedly 
political,  if  not  individual  and  personal,  the  floating 
elements  of  grammar  have  been  arrested  and  made  to 
assume  an  amalgamated,  instead  of  a  merely  agglutin- 
ative character.  This  second  may  be  called  the  "  Dia- 
lectic Period." 

Now.  after  these  two  periods,  but  before  the  appear- 
ance of  the  first  traces  of  any  national  literature,  there 
is  a  period,  represented  everywhere  by  the  same  char- 
acteristic features, — a  kind  of  Eocene  period,  com- 
monly called  the  "  Mythological  "  or  "  Mythopoeic  " 
Age.  It  is  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind, 
perhaps  the  most  difficult  to  understand,  and  the  most 
likely  to  shake  our  faith  in  the  regular  progress  of  the 
human  intellect.  We  can  form  a  tolerably  clear  idea 
of  the  origin  of  language,  of  the  gradual  formation  of 
grammar,  and  the  unavoidable  divergence  of  dialects 
and  languages.  We  can  understand,  again,  the  earliest 
concentrations  of  political  societies,  the  establishment 
of  laws  and  customs,  and  the  first  beginnings  of  re- 
ligion and  poetry.  But  between  the  two  there  is  a 
gulf  which  it  seems  impossible  for  any  philosophy  to 
bridge  over.  We  call  it  the  "  Mythic  Period,"  and  we 
have  accustomed  ourselves  to  believe  that  the  Greeks, 
for  instance,  —  such  as  we  find  them  represented  to  us 
in  the  Homeric  poems,  far  advanced  in  the  fine  arts, 
acquainted  with  the  refinements  and  comforts  of  life, 
such  as  we  see  at  the  palaces  of  Menelaos  and  Alki- 
noos,  with  public  meetings  and  elaborate  pleadings, 
with  the  mature  wisdom  of  a  Nestor  and  the  cunning 
enterprise  of  an  Odysseus,  with  the  dignity  of  a  Helena 
and  the  loveliness  of  a  Nausikaa  —  could  have  been 
preceded  by  a  race  of  men  whose  chief  amusement  con- 


10  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

sisted  in  inventing  absurd  tales  about  gods  and  other 
nondescript  beings,  —  a  race  of  men,  in  fact,  on  whose 
tomb  the  historian  could  inscribe  no  better  epigram 
than  that  on  Bitto  and  Phainis.  Although  later  poets 
may  have  given  to  some  of  these  fables  a  charm  of 
beauty,  and  led  us  to  accept  them  as  imaginative  coin- 
positions,  it  is  impossible  to  conceal  the  fact  that,  taken 
by  themselves,  and  in  their  literal  meaning,  most  of 
these  ancient  myths  are  absurd  and  irrational,  and  fre- 
quently opposed  to  the  principles  of  thought,  religion, 
and  morality  which  guided  the  Greeks  as  soon  as  they 
appear  to  us  in  the  twilight  of  traditional  history.  By 
whom,  then,  were  these  stories  invented  ?  —  stories, 
we  must  say  at  once,  identical  in  form  and  character, 
whether  we  find  them  on  Indian,  Persian,  Greek,  Ital- 
ian, Slavonic,  or  Teutonic  soil.  Was  there  a  period 
of  temporary  insanity,  through  which  the  human  mind 
had  to  pass,  and  was  it  a  madness  identically  .the  same 
in  the  south  of  India  and  in  the  north  of  Iceland  ?  It 
is  impossible  to  believe  that  a  people  who,  in  the  very 
infancy  of  thought,  produced  men  like  Thales,  Hera- 
kleitos,  and  Pythagoras,  should  have  consisted  of  idle 
talkers  but  a  few  centuries  before  the  time  of  these 
sages.  Even  if  we  take  only  that  part  of  mythology 
which  refers  to  religion,  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  or 
the  myths  which  bear  on  the  highest  problems  of  phi- 
losophy, —  such  as  the  creation,  the  relation  of  man  to 
God,  life  and  death,  virtue  and  vice,  —  myths  generally 
the  most  modern  in  origin,  we  find  that  even  this  small 
portion,  which  might  be  supposed  to  contain  some  sober 
•deas,  or  some  pure  and  sublime  conceptions,  is  unwor- 
thy of  the  ancestors  of  the  Homeric  poets  or  the  Ionic 
philosophers.  When  the  swineherd  Eumaeos,  unac- 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  11 

quainted,  perhaps,  with  the  intricate  system  of  the 
Olympian  mythology,  speaks  of  the  Deity,  he  speaks 
like  one  of  ourselves.  "  Eat,"  he  says  to  Odysseus, 
"  and  enjoy  what  is  here,  for  Gou  will  grant  one  thing, 
but  another  he  will  refuse,  whatever  he  will  in  his 
mind,  for  he  can  do  all  things,"  1  This,  we  may  sup- 
pose, was  the  language  of  the  common  people  at  tin; 
time  of  Homer,  and  it  is  simple  and  sublime,  if  com- 
pared with  what  has  been  supposed  one  of  the  grandest 
conceptions  of  Greek  mythology,  that,  namely,  where 
Zeus,  in  order  to  assert  his  omnipotence,  tells  the  gods, 
that  if  they  took  a  rope,  and  all  the  gods  and  goddesses 
pulled  on  one  side,  they  could  not  drag  him  down  from 
the  heaven  to  the  earth  ;  while,  if  he  chose,  he  could 
pull  them  all  up,  and  suspend  the  earth  and  the  sea 
from  the  summit  of  Olympos.  What  is  more  ridicu- 
lous than  the  mythological  account  of  the  creation  of 
the  human  race  by  Deukalion  and  Pyrrha  throwing 
stones  behind  them  (a  myth  which  owes  its  origin  to  a 
mere  pun  on  Aaos  and  >  uas)  ?  while  we  can  hardly  ex- 
pect, among  pagans,  a  more  profound  conception  of  the 
relation  between  God  and  man,  than  the  saying  of 
Herakleitos,  "  Men  are  mortal  gods,  and  gods  are  im- 
mortal men."  Let  us  think  of  the  times  which  could 
bear  a  Lykurgos  and  a  Solon,  —  which  could  found 
an  Areopagos  and  the  Olympic  games,  and  how  can 
we  imagine  that,  a  few  generations  before  that  time, 
the  highest  notions  of  the  Godhead  among  the  Greeks 
were  adequately  expressed  by  the  story  of  Uranos 
maimed  by  Kronos,  —  of  Kronos  eating  his  children. 

\    Od.  XIV.  443.     'Eo-flie,  Scu.ij.6vie  fccVtuc,  xai  repireo  TOicrSe 

O'a  irdpean'  6ebs  Se  TO  ft.ev  Sucre.  TO  &'  eacrei, 
*OTTI  Ktv  u  Ovfj.tZ  i8e\ji'  ivVarai  yap  airavra. 


12  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

swallowing  a  stone,  and  vomiting  out  alive  his  whole 
progeny  ?  Among  the  lowest  tribes  of  Africa  and 
America  we  hardly  find  anything  more  hideous  and  re- 
volting. It  is  shutting  our  eyes  to  the  difficulties 
which  stare  us  in  the  face,  if  we  say,  like  Mr.  Grote, 
that  this  mythology  was  "  a  past  which  was  never 
present ;  '*  and  it  seems  blasphemy  to  consider  these 
fables  of  the  heathen  world  as  corrupted  and  misinter- 
preted fragments  of  a  divine  revelation  once  granted 
to  the  whole  race  of  mankind  —  a  view  so  frequently 
advocated  by  Christian  divines.  These  myths  have 
been  made  by  man  at  a  certain  period  of  history. 
There  was  an  age  which  produced  these  myths,  —  an 
age  half-way  between  the  Dialectical  Period,  pre- 
senting the  human  race  gradually  diverging  into  dif- 
ferent families  and  languages,  and  the  National  Period, 
exhibiting  to  us  the  earliest  traces  of  nationalized  lan- 
guage, and  a  nationalized  literature  in  India,  Persia, 
Greece,  Italy,  and  Germany.  The  fact  is  there,  and  we 
must  either  explain  it,  or  admit  in  the  gradual  growth 
of  the  human  mind,  as  in  the  formation  of  the  earth, 
some  violent  revolutions,  which  broke  the  regularity  of 
the  early  strata  of  thought,  and  convulsed  the  human 
mind,  like  volcanoes  and  earthquakes  arising  from  some 
unknown  cause,  below  the  surface  of  history. 

Much,  however,  Avill  be  gained  if,  without  being 
driven  to  adopt  so  violent  and  repugnant  a  theory,  we 
are  able  to  account  in  a  more  intelligible  manner  for 
the  creation  of  myths.  Their  propagation  and  sub- 
sistence in  later  times,  though  strange  in  many  re- 
spects, is  yet  a  much  less  intricate  problem.  The 
human  mind  has  an  inborn  reverence  for  the  past, 
and  the  religious  piety  of  the  man  flows  from  the  same 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  13 

natural  spring  as  the  filial  piety  of  the  child.  Even 
though  the  traditions  of  past  ages  may  appear  strange, 
wild,  and  sometimes  immoral  or  impossible,  each  gen- , 
eration  accepts  them,  and  fashions  them  so  that  they 
can  be  borne  with  again,  and  even  made  to  disclose  a 
true  and  deeper  meaning.  Many  of  the  natives  of 
India,  though  versed  in  European  science,  and  imbued 
with  the  principles  of  a  pure  natural  theology,  yet  bow 
down  and  worship  the  images  of  Vishnu  and  *5>'iva. 
They  know  that  these  images  are  but  stone ;  they  con- 
fess that  their  feelings  revolt  against  the  impurities 
attributed  to  these  gods  by  what  they  call  their  sacred 
writings ;  yet  there  are  honest  Brahmans  who  will 
maintain  that  these  stories  have  a  deeper  meaning,  — 
that  immorality  being  incompatible  with  a  divine  being, 
a  mystery  must  be  supposed  to  be  concealed  in  these 
time-hallowed  fables, — a  mystery  which  an  inquiring 
and  reverent  mind  may  hope  to  fathom.  Nay,  even 
where  Christian  missionaries  have  been  successful, 
where  the  purity  of  the  Christian  faith  has  won  the 
heart  of  a  native,  and  made  the  extravagant  absurdi- 
ties of  the  Puranas  insupportable  to  him,  the  faith  of 
his  early  childhood  will  still  linger  on  and  break  out 
occasionally  in  unguarded  expressions,  as  several  of 
the  myths  of  antiquity  have  crept  into  the  legends  of 
the  Church  of  Rome.1  We  find  frequent  indications 
in  ancient  history  that  the  Greeks  themselves  were 
shocked  by  the  stories  told  of  their  gods;  yet  as  even 
in  our  own  times  faith  with  most  men  is  not  faith  in 
God  or  in  truth,  but  faith  in  the  faith  of  others,  we 
may  understand  why  even  men  like  Sokrates  were  un- 

1  See  Grimm's   Intr  jduction  to  his  great  work  on    Teutonic  Mythology, 
second  edition,  1844,  p.  xxxi. 


14  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

willing  to  renounce  their  belief  in  what  had  been  be- 
lieved by  their  fathers.  As  their  idea  of  the  Godhead 
became  purer,  they  felt  that  the  idea  of  perfection,  in- 
volved in  the  idea  of  a  divine  being,  excluded  the 
possibility  of  immoral  gods.  Pindar,  as  pointed  out  by 
Otfried  M  tiller,1  changes  many  myths  because  they 
are  not  in  harmony  with  his  purer  conceptions  of 
the  dignity  of  gods  and  heroes  ;  and,  because,  accord- 
ing to  his  opinion,  they  must  be  false.  Plato  2  argues 
in  a  similar  spirit  when  he  examines  the  different  tradi- 
tions about  Eros  ;  and  in  the  "  Symposium  "  we  see 
how  each  speaker  maintains  that  myth  of  Eros  to  be 
the  only  true  one  which  agrees  best  with  his  own  ideas 
of  the  nature  of  this  god,  —  Phaedros8  calling  him  the 
oldest,  Agathon  the  youngest  of  the  gods;  yet  each 
appealing  to  the  authority  of  an  ancient  myth.  Thus, 
men  who  had  as  clear  a  conception  of  the  omnipotence 
and  omnipresence  of  a  supreme  God  as  natural  relig- 
ion can  reveal,  still  called  him  Zeus,  forgetting  the 
adulterer  and  parricide  :  — 

Zeus  a-px*]>  Zeus  /xeVcra,  Atos  8*  €K  Travra. 


"Zeus  is  the  beginning,  Zeus  the  middle;  out  of  Zeus  all  things  have 
been  made;  " 

—  an  Orphic  line,  but  an  old  one,  if,  as  Mr.  Grote  sup- 
poses, Plato  alluded  to  it.4     Poets,  again,  who  felt  in 

1  Seo  0.  Miiller's  excellent  work,  Prolegomena  zii  einer  wissemdiaftlichen 
Mytlwkgie,  1825,  p.  87. 

2  Phasdros,  242  E. 

*  Rytltp.  178  C.  Ovrtat  iro^a\68fv  b/ioXoyemu  o  *Epu>?  ei>  TOI?  irpeaftvrdr  it 
ttici"  7rpco/?vTaro$  £e  Siv  ntyurriav  dyaBuiv  r))j.lv  curios  earif  195  A  <<rri  8t 
KaAAirf  TOS  tav  TOioo'6'e*  irfiiaTov  ftev  veutraroy  6eiav  u>  4>ai£pe. 

4  Lobeck,  Aylaoph.  p.  523,  gives 

Zei>$  xe  ,'iaXi),  /tus  fiecrira,  Aib?  £'  e/e  TTO.VTO.  rrr 

See  Preller's  Grtek  Mythology,  1854,  p  99. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  15 

their  hearts  the  true,  emotion  of  prayer,  a  yearning 
after  divine  help  and  protection,  still  spoke  of  Zeus, 
forgetting  that  at  one  time  Zeus  himself  was  vanquished 
by  Titan,  and  had  to  be  delivered  by  Hermes.1  JEs- 
chylos2  says  :  "  Zeus,  whoever  he  is,  if  this  be  the  name 
by  which  he  loves  to  be  called,  —  by  this  name  I  ad- 
dress him.  For,  pondering  on  all  things  except  Zeus,  I 
cannot  tell  whether  I  may  truly  cast  off  the  idle  bur- 
den from  my  thought." 

No,  the  preservation  of  these  mythic  names,  the  long 
life  of  these  fables,  and  their  satisfying  the  religious, 
poetical,  and  moral  wants  of  succeeding  generations, 
though  strange  antl  startling,  is  not  the  real  difficulty. 
The  past  has  its  charms,  and  tradition  has  a  powerful 
friend  in  language.  We  still  speak  of  the  sun  rising 
and  setting,  of  rainbows,  of  thunderbolts,  because  lan- 
guage has  sanctioned  these  expressions.  We  use  them, 
though  we  do  not  believe  in  them.  The  difficulty  is 
how  at  first  the  human  mind  was  led  to  such  imagin- 
ings, —  how  the  names  and  tales  arose,  —  and  unless  this 
question  can  be  answered,  our  belief  in  a  regular  and 
consistent  progress  of  the  human  intellect,  through  all 
ages  and  in  alJ  countries,  must  be  given  up  as  a  false 
theory. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  we  know  absolutely  noth- 
ing of  this  period  during  which  the  as  yet  undivided 

1  Apotttxl.  1,  6,  3,  Grote,  II.  G.  p.  4. 

2  I  give  the  text,  because  it  lias  been  translated  in  so  many  different 
w*ys  :  — 

Zev?,  OOTIT  JTOT'  corti',  el  ro6'  ou- 


OUK  ex<»  7rpocretxa<rai, 
iravr*  67ri<rTa0fx<i/xci'Os 
*At)V  AIDS,  ei  TO  fxarav  dito  Qpovntof  &\Vtt 


16  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

Aryan  nations  —  for  it  is  chiefly  of  them  that  we  are 
now  speaking  —  formed  their  myths.  Even  if  we 
saw  only  the  deep  shadow  which  lies  on  the  Greek 
mind  from  the  very  beginning  of  its  political  and  liter- 
ary history,  we  should  be  able  to  infer  from  it  some- 
thing of  the  real  character  of  that  age  which  must 
nave  preceded  the  earliest  dawn  of  the  national  litera- 
ture of  Greece.  Otfried  Miiller,1  though  he  was  un- 
acquainted with  the  new  light  which  comparative  phi- 
lology has  shed  on  this  primitive  Aryan  period,  says : 
"  The  mythic  form  of  expression  which  changes  all  be- 
ings into  persons,  all  relations  into  actions,  is  some- 
thing so  peculiar  that  we  must  admit  for  its  growth  a 
distinct  period  in  the  civilization  of  a  people."  But 
comparative  philology  has  since  brought  this  whole 
period  within  the  pale  of  documentary  history.  It  has 
placed  in  our  hands  a  telescope  of  such  power  that, 
where  formerly  we  could  see  but  nebulous  clouds,  we 
now  discover  distinct  forms  and  outlines ;  nay,  it  has 
given  us  what  we  may  call  contemporary  evidence,  ex- 
hibiting to  us  the  state  of  thought,  language,  religion, 
and  civilization  at  a  period  when  Sanskrit  was  not  yet 
Sanskrit,  Greek  not  yet  Greek,  but  when  both,  to- 
gether with  Latin,  German,  and  other  Aryan  dialects, 
existed  as  yet  as  one  undivided  language,  in  the  same 
manner  as  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish  may  be  said  to 
have  at  one  time  existed  as  one  undivided  language,  in 
the  form  of  Latin. 

This  will  require  a  short  explanation.  If  we  knew 
nothing  of  the  existence  of  Latin ;  if  all  historical 
documents  previous  to  the  fifteenth  century  had  been 
lost;  if  tradition,  even,  were  silent  as  to  the  former 

l  Prd.  Myth.  p.  78. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  17 

existence  of  a  Roman  empire,  a  mere  comparison  of 
the  six  Romance  dialects  would  enable  us  to  say,  that 
at  some  time  there  must  have  been  a  language  from 
which  all  these  modern  dialects  derived  their  origin 
in  common;  for  without  this  supposition  it  would  be 
impossible  to  account  for  the  facts  exhibited  by  these 
dialects.  Let  us  look  at  the  auxiliary  verb.  We 
find :  — 


Italian. 

Wallachian. 

RhaEtian. 

Spanish. 

Portuguese. 

French. 

I  ami 

aono, 

sum  (sunt), 

Bunt, 

soy, 

sou, 

81113. 

Thou  art: 

Ml, 

es. 

eis. 

ere», 

es. 

es. 

He  is: 

6, 

e  'es(c). 

ei. 

es. 

he. 

Mb 

We  are: 

siamo, 

duntemu, 

essen, 

somes, 

somos, 

sommes. 

You  are: 

siete. 

suntefi, 

esses, 

BOis, 

sois. 

ttes  (estes> 

They  are: 

sono, 

6  lint, 

can  (sun), 

son. 

Bay, 

sont. 

It  is  clear,  even  from  a  short  consideration  of  these 
forms,  first,  that  all  are  but  varieties  of  one  common 
type  ;  secondly,  that  it  is  impossible  to  consider  any 
one  of  these  six  paradigms  as  the  original  from  which 
the  others  had  been  borrowed.  To  this  we  may  add, 
thirdly,  that  in  none  of  the  languages  to  which  these 
verbal  forms  belong,  do  we  find  the  elements  of  which 
they  could  have  been  composed.  If  we  find  such 
forms  as  fai  dime,  we  can  explain  them  by  a  mere  ref- 
erence to  the  grammatical  materials  which  French  has 
still  at  its  command,  and  the  same  may  be  said  even  of 
compounds  like  f  aimerai,  i.  e.  je-aimer-ai,  I  have  to 
love,  I  shall  love.  But  a  change  from  ye  suis  to  tu  es 
is  inexplicable  by  the  light  of  French  grammar.  These 
forms  could  not  have  grown,  so  to  speak,  on  French 
soil,  but  must  have  been  handed  down  as  relics  from  a 
former  peiiod,  —  must  have  existed  in  some  language 
antecedent  to  any  of  the  Romance  dialects.  Now,  for- 
tunately, in  this  case,  we  are  not  left  to  a  mere  infer- 
ence, but  as  we  possess  the  Latin  verb,  we  can  prove 

vov  n.  2 


10  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

how  by  phonetic  corruption,  and  by  mistaken  analo- 
gies, every  one  of  the  six  paradigms  is  but  a  national 
metamorphosis  of  the  Latin  original. 

Let  us  now  look  at  another  set  of  paradigms  :  — 

Sanskrit.  Lithuanian.   Zend.        Doric.    Old  Slav.    Latin.      Gothic.      Armen. 


1  am: 

UMIli, 

CMIli, 

all  mi, 

EMM', 

yesiiie. 

sum. 

ba 

em. 

Tiouart: 

asi, 

c."i. 

alii, 

iartri, 

J'e»i, 

cs. 

is, 

ea 

lie  is; 

asti. 

esti. 

n.<ti, 

trr' 

yentA, 

eat. 

ist. 

c. 

We  (two)  are: 

Vvfa, 

esva. 

ycsva, 

gijii. 

Yon  (two)  are: 

•sthas, 

eKta, 

*tho? 

(TTOV, 

yesta, 

sijuts, 

They  (two)  are: 

'bias, 

(e«ti), 

»to. 

ancov, 

ycsta, 

We  are: 

'sinas, 

esnil, 

hmahl, 

<TM«' 

yesino, 

suinus, 

Bijum, 

cinq. 

You  are: 

'stlia, 

eate, 

»ta, 

ore, 

ycste, 

cstis, 

sijuth, 

eq. 

They  are: 

santi, 

(CBti), 

henti, 

ITi, 

somte, 

sunt. 

Bind, 

en. 

From  a  careful  consideration  of  these  forms,  we 
ought  to  draw  exactly  the  same  conclusions;  first, that 
all  are  but  varieties  of  one  common  type  ;  secondly, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  consider  any  of  them  as  the 
original  from  which  the  others  have  been  borrowed  ; 
and  thirdly,  that,  here  again,  none  of  the  languages  in 
which  these  verbal  forms  occur,  possess  the  grammatical 
materials  out  of  which  such  forms  could  have  been 
framed.  Tbat  Sanskrit  cannot  be  taken  as  the  .original 
from  which  all  the  rest  were  derived  (an  opinion  held 
by  many  scholars),  is  clear,  if  we  see  that  Greek  has, 
in  several  instances,  preserved  a  more  primitive,  or, 
as  it  is  called,  more  organic  form  than  Sanskrit.  'EO--/ACS 
cannot  be  derived  from  the  Sanskrit  "  smas,"  because 
"  smas  "  has  lost  the  radical  a,  which  Greek  has  pre- 
served, the  root  being  as,  to  be,  the  termination  "  mas," 
\\e.  Nor  can  Greek  be  fixed  upon  as  the  more  primi- 
tive language  from  which  others  were  derived,  for  not 
even  Latin  could  be  called  the  daughter  of  Greek,  the 
language  of  Rome  having  preserved  some  forms  more 
primitive  than  Greek ;  for  instance,  sunt  instead  of 
ivri  or  «Vo-i  or  elo-i.  Here  Greek  has  lost  the  radical  as 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  19 

altogether,  evri  standing  instead  of  eo-evri,  while  Latin 
has  at  least,  like  Sanskrit,  preserved  the  radical  «  in 
wnt=santi. 

Hence,  all  these  dialects  point  to  some  more  ancient 
language  which  was  to  them  what  Latin  was  to  the 
Romance  dialects,  —  only  that  at  that  early  period 

*/  r         I 

there  was  no  literature  to  preserve  to  us  any  remnants 
of  that  mother- tongue  that  died  in  giving  birth  to  the 
modern  Aryan  dialects,  such  as  Sanskrit,  Zend,  Greek, 
Latin,  Gothic,  Slavonic,  and  Celtic.  Yet,  if  there  is 
any  truth  in  inductive  reasoning,  that  language  was 
once  a  living  language,  spoken  in  Asia  by  a  small  tribe, 
nay,  originally  by  a  small  family  living  under  one  and 
the  same  roof,  as  the  language  of  Camoens,  Cervantes, 
Voltaire,  and  Dante,  was  once  spoken  by  a  few  peas- 
ants who  had  built  their  huts  on  the  Seven  Hills  near 
the  Tibris.  If  we  compare  the  two  tables  of  para- 
digms, the  coincidences  between  the  language  of  the 
Veda  and  the  dialect  spoken  at  the  present  day  by  the 
Lithuanian  recruit  at  Berlin  are  greater  by  far  than 
between  French  and  Italian  ;  and,  after  Bopp's  "  Com- 
parative Grammar "  has  been  completed,  it  will  be 
seen  clearly  that  all  the  essential  forms  of  grammar 
had  been  fully  framed  and  established  before  the  first 
separation  of  the  Aryan  family  took  place. 

But  we  may  learn  much  more  of  the  intellectual 
state  of  the  primitive  and  undivided  family  of  the 
Aryan  nations,  if  we  use  the  materials  which  Com- 
parative Philology  has  placed  at  our  disposal ;  and,  here 
again,  the  Romance  languages  will  teach  us  the  spell  by 
which  \ve  may  hope  to  open  the  archives  of  the  most 
ancient  history  of  the  Aryan  race.  If  we  find  in  all 
t  le  Romance  dialects  a  word  like  the  French  "  pont," 


20  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

the  Italian  "  ponte,"  the  Spanish  "  puente,"  the  Wal- 
lachian  "  pod,"  identically  the  same  in  all,  after  making 
allowance  for  those  peculiarities  which  give  to  each 
dialect  its  national  character,  we  have  a  right  to  say 
that  *'  pons,"  the  name  for  "  bridge,"  was  known  be- 
fore these  languages  separated,  and  that,  therefore,  the 
art  of  building  bridges  must  have  been  known  at  the 
same  time.  We  could  assert,  even  if  we  knew  nothing 
of  Latin  and  of  Rome,  that  previous,  at  least,  to  the 
tenth  century,  books,  bread,  wine,  houses,  villages, 
towns,  towers,  and  gates,  etc.,  were  known  to  those 
people,  whoever  they  were,  from  whose  language  the 
modern  dialects  of  Southern  Europe  are  derived.  It 
is  true,  we  should  not  be  able  to  draw  a  very  perfect 
picture  of  the  intellectual  state  of  the  Roman  people 
if  we  were  obliged  to  construct  their  history  from  such 
scanty  materials ;  yet  we  should  be  able  to  prove  that 
there  really  was  such  a  people,  and,  in  the  absence  of 
any  other  information,  even  a  few  casual  glimpses  of 
their  work  in  life  would  be  welcome.  But,  though  we 
might  safely  use  this  method  positively,  only  taking 
care  to  avoid  foreign  terms,  we  could  not  invert  it  or 
use  it  negatively.  Because  each  of  the  Romance  dia- 
iects  has  a  different  name  for  certain  objects,  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  objects  themselves  were  unknown 
to  the  ancestors  of  the  Romance  nations.  Paper  was 
known  at  Rome,  yet  it  is  called  "  carta "  in  Italian, 
"  papier  "  in  French. 

Now,  as  we  know  nothing  of  the  Aryan  race,  before 
it  was  broken  up  into  different  nationalities,  such  as 
Indian,  German,  Greek,  Roman,  Slavonic,  Teutonic, 
and  Celtic,  this  method  of  making  language  itself 
tell  the  history  of  ancient  times  will  become  of  great 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  21 

value,  because  it  will  give  a  character  of  historical  real- 

o 

ity  to  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  human  race,  the 
very  existence  of  which  had  been  doubted,  —  to  a  pe- 
riod that  had  been  called  "  a  past  that  was  never  pres- 
ent." We  must  not  expect  a  complete  history  of  civ- 
ilization, exhibiting  in  full  detail  a  picture  of  the  times 
when  the  language  of  Homer  and  of  the  Veda  had  not 
yet  been  formed.  But  we  shall  feel  by  some  small  but 
significant  traits  the  real  presence  of  that  early  period 
in  the  history  of  the  human  mind  —  a  period  which,  for 
reasons  that  will  be  clearer  hereafter,  we  identify  with 
the  Mythopoeic. 

Sanskrit.  Zend.          Greek.  Latin.  Gothic.  Slavonic.                    Irish. 

Father :       pitar,      pntar,           TraTTJo,  pnter,  fadar,               .  .                            athair. 

Mother:       matar,    matar,          fiijnjp,  mater,       .  .  mat!  (gen.  niatcre),  mathair. 

Brother:      bhratnr,  bratar,         (0par>jp),  frater,  brfithar,  brat',                          brathalr. 

Sister:          svasar,   qnnhar,              .  .  eoror,  Bvistur,  sestra,                        siur. 

Daughter:  duhitir,  dughdhur,  fltrya-njp,  •  •  dauhtar,  (Uth.)  dukte,           dear. 

The  mere  fact,  that  the  names  for  father,  mother, 
brother,  sister,  and  daughter  are  the  same  in  most  of  the 
Aryan  languages,  might  at  first  sight  seem  of  immate- 
rial significance  ;  yet,  even  these  words  are  full  of  im- 
port. That  the  name  of  father  was  coined  at  that 
early  period,  shows  that  the  father  acknowledged  the 
offspring  of  his  wife  as  his  own,  for  thus  only  had  he  a 
rio-ht  to  claim  the  title  of  father.  "  Father  "  is  derived 

O 

from  a  root  PA,  which  means  not  to  beget,  but  to  pro- 
tect, to  support,  to  nourish.  The  father  as  progenitor, 
was  called  in  Sanskrit,  "^anitar,"  but  as  protector  and 
supporter  of  his  offspring  he  was  called  "  pitar." 
Hence,  in  the  Veda  these  two  names  are  used  together, 
in  order  to  express  the  full  idea  of  father.  Thus  the 
poet  says  (I.  164,  33)  :  - 

"  Dyails  me  p'tft  r/anit&." 
"  Jo(vi)s  mei  pater  genitor." 


22  COMPORATIVh  MYTHOLOGY. 

In  a  similar  manner,  "  matai',"  mother,  is  johicd 
with  "  <7anitri,"  yenitrix  (Rv.  III.  48,  2),  which  shows 
that  the  word  "  matar  "  must  soon  have  lost  its  etymo- 
logical meaning,  and  have  become  an  expression  of  re- 
spect and  endearment.  Among  the  earliest  Aryans, 
"  matar "  had  the  meaning  of  maker,  from  MA,  to 
fashion  ;  and,  in  this  sense,  and  with  the  same  accent 
as  the  Greek  ^n/p,  ma'tar,  not  yet  determined  by  a 
feminine  affix,  it  is  used  in  the  Veda  as  a  masculine. 
Thus  we  read,  for  instance,  Rv.  VIII.  41,  4 :  — 

"  So/t  mata  pflrvyam  padam." 

"  He,  Varuna  (Uranos),  is  the  maker  of  the  old  place." 

Now,  it  should  be  observed,  that  "  matar,"  as  well 
as  "  pitar,"  is  but  one  out  of  many  names  by  which  the 
idea  of  father  and  mother  might  have  been  expressed. 
Even  if  we  confined  ourselves  to  the  root  PA,  and  took 
the  granting  of  support  to  his  offspring  as  the  most 
characteristic  attribute  of  father,  many  words  might 
have  been,  and  actually  were  formed,  all  equally  fit 
to  become,  so  to  say,  the  proper  names  of  father.  In 
Sanskrit,  protector  can  be  expressed  not  only  by  PA, 
followed  by  the  derivative  suffix  "  tar,"  but  by  "  pa-la," 
"  pa-laka,"  "  pa-yu,"  all  meaning  protector.  The  fact, 
that  out  of  many  possible  forms,  one  only  has  been  ad- 
mitted into  all  the  Aryan  dictionaries,  shows  that  there 
.nust  have  been  something  like  a  traditional  usage  in 
language  long  before  the  separation  of  the  Aryan  fam- 
ily took  place.  Besides,  there  were  other  roots  from 
which  the  name  of  father  might  have  been  formed, 
such  as  GAN,  from  which  we  have  "^anitar,"  genitor, 
yeverrjp  ',  or  TAK,  from  which  the  Greek  roKevs ;  as  PAR, 
from  which  the  Latin  par  ens ;  not  to  mention  many 
other  names  equally  applicable  to  express  some  promi* 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  23 

nent  attribute  of  a  father  in  his  relation  to  his  children. 
If  each  Aryan  dialect  had  formed  its  own  name  for 
father,  from  one  of  the  many  roots  which  all  the  Aryan 
dialects  share  in  common,  we  should  be  able  to  say  that 
there  was  a  radical  community  between  all  these  lan- 
guages ;  but  we  should  never  succeed  in  proving,  what 
is  most  essential,  their  historical  community,  or  their 
divergence  from  one  language  which  had  already  ac- 
quired a  decided  idiomatical  consistency. 

It  happens,  however,  even  with  these,  the  most  es- 
sential terms  of  an  incipient  civilization,  that  one  or 
the  other  of  the  Aryan  dialects  has  lost  the  ancient 
expression,  and  replaced  it  by  a  new  one.  The  com- 
mon Aryan  names  for  brother  and  sister,  for  instance, 
do  not  occur  in  Greek,  where  brother  and  sister  are 
called  dSeA(/>os  and  aS«X^.  To  conclude  from  this  that 
at  the  time  when  the  Greeks  started  from  their  Aryan 
home,  the  names  of  brother  and  sister  had  not  yet  been 
framed,  would  be  a  mistake.  We  have  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  Greeks  were  the  first  to  leave,  and,  if 
we  find  that  nations  like  the  Teutonic  or  Celtic,  who 
could  have  had  no  contact  with  the  natives  of  India 
after  the  first  separation  had  taken  place,  share  the 
name  of  brother  in  common  with  Sanskrit,  it  is  as  cer- 
tain that  this  name  existed  in  the  primitive  Aryan  lan- 
guage, as  the  occurrence  of  the  same  word  in  Walla- 
chian  and  Portuguese  would  prove  its  Latin  origin, 
though  no  trace  of  it  existed  in  any  other  of  the  other 
Romance  dialects.  No  doubt,  the  growth  of  language 
is  governed  by  immutable  laws,  but  the  influence  of 
accident  is  more  considerable  here  than  in  any  other 
branch  of  natural  science  ;  and  though  in  this  case  it 

*  O 

is  possible  to  find  a  principle  which  determines  the  ac- 


24  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

cidental  loss  1  of  the  ancient  names  for  brother  and  sis- 
ter in  Greek,  yet  this  is  r/ot  the  case  always,  and  we 
shall  frequently  find  that  one  or  the  other  Aryan  dialect 
does  not  exhibit  a  term  which  yet,  on  the  strength  of 
our  general  argument,  wo  shall  feel  justified  in  ascrib- 
ing to  the  most  ancient  period  of  Aryan  speech. 

The  mutual  relation  between  brother  and  sister  had 
been  hallowed  at  that  early  period,  and  it  had  been 
sanctioned  by  names  which  had  become  traditional  be- 
fore the  Aryan  family  broke  up  into  different  colonies. 
The  original  meaning  of  "  bhratar "  seems  to  me  to 
have  been  he  who  carries  or  assists  ;  of  "  savasar,"  she 
who  pleases  or  consoles,  —  "  svasti "  meaning  in  San- 
skrit joy  or  happiness. 

In  "duhitar,"  again,  we  find  a  name  which  must 
have  become  traditional  long  before  the  separation  took 
place.  It  is  a  name  identically  the  same  in  all  the  dia- 
lects, except  Latin,  and  yet  Sanskrit  alone  could  ha\re 
preserved  a  consciousness  of  its  appellative  power. 
"  Duhitar,"  as  Professor  Lassen  was  the  first  to  show, 
is  derived  from  Dun,  a  root  which  in  Sanskrit  means 
to  milk.  It  is  perhaps  connected  with  the  Latin  duco, 
and  the  transition  of  meaning  would  be  the  same  as 
between  "trahere,"  to  draw,  and  "  traire,"  to  milk. 
Now,  the  name  of  milkmaid,  given  to  the  daughter  of 
the  house,  opens  before  our  eyes  a  little  idyl  of  the 
poetical  and  pastoral  life  of  the  early  Aryans.  One  of 
the  few  things  by  which  the  daughter,  before  she  was 
niarriid,  might  make  herself  useful  in  a  nomadic  house- 
hold, was  the  milking  of  the  cattle,  and  it  discloses  a 
kind  of  delicacy  and  humor,  even  in  the  rudest  state 
of  society,  if  we  imagine  a  father  calling  his  daughter 

l  See  Edinburgh  Review,  Oct.  1851,  p.  320. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  25 

his  little  milkmaid,  rather  than  "  suta,"  his  begotten, 
or  "  filia,"  the  suckling.  This  meaning,  however, 
must  have  been  forgotten  long  before  the  Aryans 
separated.  "  Dnhitar  "  was  then  no  longer  a  nickname, 
but  it  had  become  a  technical  term,  or,  so  to  say,  the 
proper  name  of  daughter.  That  many  words  were 
formed  in  the  same  spirit,  and  that  they  were  applicable 
only  during  a  nomadic  state  of  life,  we  shall  have  fre- 
quent opportunity  of  seeing,  as  we  go  on.  But  as  the 
transition  of  words  of  such  special  meaning  into  gen- 
eral terms,  deprived  of  all  etymological  vitality,  may 
seem  strange,  we  may  as  well  give  at  once  a  few  anal- 
ogous cases  where,  behind  expressions  of  the  most 
general  currency,  we  can  discover,  by  means  of  ety- 
mology, this  peculiar  background  of  the  ancient  nomad 
life  of  the  Aryan  nations.  The  very  word  "  peculiar  " 
may  serve  as  an  illustration,  taken  from  more  modern 
times.  Peculiar,  now  means  singular,  extraordinary, 
but  originally  it  meant  what  was  private,  i.  e.  not  com- 
mon property;  being  derived  from  peeuhum.  Now, 
the  Latin  pecul.ium  stands  for  pecudium  (like  consillum 
for  considium)  ;  and  being  derived  from  pecus,  peeudis, 
it  expressed  originally  what  we  should  call  cattle  and 
chattel.  Cattle  constituting  the  chief  personal  property 
of  agricultural  people,  we  may  well  understand  how 
peculiar,  meaning  originally  what  refers  to  one's  own 
property,  came  to  mean  not-common,  and  at  last,  in 
our  modern  conversation,  passed  into  the  meaning  of 
strange.  I  need  hardly  mention  the  well-known  ety- 
mology of  pecunia,  which  being  derived  from  the  same 
word,  pea,  and  therefore  signifying  "  flocks,"  took 
gradually  the  meaning  of  "money,"  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  Anglo-Saxon  "  feoh,"  the  German  "  Vieh," 
cattle  (and  originally  according  to  Grimm's  law,  the 


26  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

same  word  as  pecu),  received  in  the  course  of  time  the 
sense  of  a  pecuniary  remuneration,  a  fee.  What  takes 
place  in  modern  languages,  and,  as  it  were,  under  oui 
own  eyes,  must  not  surprise  us  in  more  distant  ages. 
Now,  the  most  useful  cattle  have  always  been  the  ox 
and  the  cow,  and  they  seem  to  have  constituted  the 
chief  riches  and  the  most  important  means  of  subsis- 
tence among  the  Aryan  nations.  Ox  and  cow  are 
called  in  Sanskrit  "go,"  plur.  "gavas,"  which  is  the 
same  word  as  the  Old  High-German  "chuo,"  plur. 
"  chuowi,"  and  with  a  change  from  the  guttural  to  the 
labial  media,  the  classical  (3cv<s,  /2oe?,  and  6o«,  boves. 
Some  of  the  Slavonic  languages,  also,  have  preserved  a 
few  traces  of  this  ancient  name  :  for  instance,  the  Let- 
tish "  gows,"  cow  ;  the  Slavonic  "  govyado,"  a  herd  ; 
Servian  "  govedar,"  a  cowherd.  From  /Sot-?,  we  have 
in  Greek  /3owo'Aos,  which  meant  originally  a  cowherd, 
but  in  the  verb  /?ouKoAot>,  the  meaning  of  tending  cows 
has  been  absorbed  by  the  more  general  one  of  tending 
cattle,  nay,  it  is  used  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  such  as 
cA.7ri'o-i  povKoXovp-ai,  I  feed  myself  on  vain  hopes.  It  is 
used  with  regard  to  horses,  and  thus  we  find  for  horse- 
herd,  i;r7ro/3ouKoAos,  originally  a  cowherd  of  horses,  —  an 
expression  which  we  can  only  compare  to  Sanskrit 
"  govu£a>"  meaning  a  yoke  of  oxen,  but  afterwards 
any  pair,  so  that  a  pair  of  oxen  would  be  called  "  go- 
go-yuga."  Thus,  in  Sanskrit,  "  go-pa  "  means  originally 
a  cowherd,  but  it  soon  loses  this  specific  meaning,  and 
is  used  for  the  head  of  a  cow-pen,  a  herdsman,  and  at 
last,  like  the  Greek  TTOI//.T/I'  Aawi/,  for  a  king.  From 
"  gopa  "  a  new  verb  is  formed,  "  gopayati,"  and  in  it 
all  traces  of  its  original  meaning  are  obliterated ;  it 
means  simply  to  protect.  As  "  gopa  "  meant  a  cow- 
herd, "  go-tra,"  in  Sanskrit,  was  originally  a  hurdle, 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  27 

and  meant  the  inclosure  by  which  a  herd  was  protected 
against  thieves,  and  kept  from  straying.  "  Gotra," 
however,  has  almost  entirely  lost  its  etymological  power 
in  the  later  Sanskrit,  where  the  feminine  only,  "  gotraV' 
preserves  the  meaning  of  a  herd  of  kine.  In  ancient 
times,  when  most  wars  were  carried  on,  not  to  maintain 
the  balance  of  power  of  Asia  or  Europe,  but  to  take 
possession  of  good  pasture,  or  to  appropriate  large  herds 
of  cattle,1  the  hurdles  grew  naturally  into  the  walls  of 
fortresses,  the  hedges  became  strongholds ;  Anglo- 
Saxon  "  tun,"  a  close  (German  "  Zaun  "),  became  a 
town  ;  and  those  who  lived  behind  the  same  walls  were 
called  a  "  gotra,"  a  family,  a  tribe,  a  race.  In  the 
Veda,  "gotra"  is  still  used  in  the  sense  of  folds  or 
Hurdles  (III.  39,  4)  :  — 

"  Naki/i  esham  nindita  martyeshu 
Y<*  asmakam  pitaraA  goshu  yodhaA 
Imlra/i  eshiim  dri/nhita  mahinavan 
Ut  gotratii  sasri^e  damsanavan." 

**  Thei*e  is  not  among  men  one  scoffing  at  them  who 

o  O 

were  our  fathers,  who  fought  among  the  cows.  Indra, 
the  mighty,  is  their  defender ;  he,  the  powerful,  spread 
out  their  hurdles,2  (i.  e.  their  possessions)." 

"  Fighting  among  or  for  the  cows,"  "goshu-yudh," 
is  used  in  the  Veda  as  a  name  for  warrior,  in  general 
(I.  112,  22)  ;  and  one  of  the  most  frequent  words  for 
battle  is  "  gav-ishd,"  literally  *'  striving  for  cows."  In 
the  later  Sanskrit,  however,  "  gaveshana "  m^ausr. 
dimply,  research  (physical  or  philosophical),  "  gavesh," 

1  'Yitff  poAii}?  ij  X«i«  naxiufQa.   Toxar.  36.    Grimm,  History  of  the  German 
fangvagt,  p.  17. 

2  Hurdle  sp«ms  to  be  connected  with  the  Vaidik  "  Wmrdis,"  house, «'.  e, 
inclosure,  an<!  from  the  same  root  we  have  Gothic  ''  hairda,"  An<jlo-Saxon 
"  heord,"  "  hKiro,"  a  Irerd.     The  original  root  would  have  been  '•  Wiard." 
which  stands  for  "  skard,"  and  the  initial  «  is  dropt.    Another  explanation 
te  given  by  Aufredit  in  Kubn's  Zeitschrift,  vol.  i.  p.  382 


28  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

to  inquire.  Again,  "  goshf/ta  "  means  cow-pen  or  stable 
(/Jouo-rafytov) ;  but,  with  the  progress  of  time  and  civil- 
ization, "gosh^i "  became  the  name  of  an  assembly, 
nay,  it  was  used  to  express  discussion  and  gossip,  as 
gossip  in  English  too  meant  originally  a  godfather  or 
godmother,  and  then  took  the  abstract  sense  of  idle 
conversation  or  tattle. 

All  these  words,  composed  with  "  go,"  cattle,  to 
which  many  more  might  have  been  added  if  we  were 
not  afraid  of  trying  the  patience  of  our  less  skeptical 
readers,  proved  that  the  people  who  formed  them  must 
have  led  a  half  nomadic  and  pastoral  life,  and  we  may 
well  understand  how  the  same  people  came  to  use 
"duhitar"  in  the  sense  of  daughter.  Language  has 
been  called  a  map  of  the  science  and  manners  of  the 
people  who  speak  it,  and  we  should  probably  find,  if 
we  examined  the  language  of  a  maritime  people,  that 
instead  of  cattle  and  pasture,  ships  and  water  would 
form  part  of  many  words  which  afterwards  were  ap- 
plied in  a  more  general  sense. 

We  proceed  to  examine  other  terms  which  indicate 
the  state  of  society  previous  to  the  separation  of  the 
Aryan  race,  and  which  we  hope  will  give  to  our  dis- 
tant picture  that  expression  of  truth  and  reality  which 
can  be  appreciated  even  by  those  who  have  never  seen 
the  original. 

We  pass  over  the  words  for  son,  partly  because  their 
etymology  is  of  no  interest,  their  meaning  being  simply 
that  of  riatus,  born,1  partly  because  the  position  of  the 

l  For  instance,  Sansk.  "  sflnu,"  Goth.  "  sunus,"  Lith.  "  sunus,"  all  from 
"  su,"  to  beget,  whence  Greek  vios,  but  by  a  different  suffix.  Sansk. 
"  putra,"  son,  is  of  doubtful  origin.  It  was  supposed  to  be  shared  by  tha 
Celtic  branch  (Bret.  "  paotr,"  boy;  "  paotrez,"  girl),  but  it  has  been  shows 
that  the  Breton  "  paotr  "  comes  from  "  paltr,"  aa  "  aotrou  "  is  the  Corn. 
"  altrou." 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  29 

Bon,  or  the  successor  and  inheritor  of  his  fathers  Avealth 
and  power,  would  claim  a  name  at  a  much  earlier  time 
than  daughter,  sister,  or  brother.  All  these  relations 
in  fact,  expressed  by  father  and  mother,  son  and 
(laughter,  brother  and  sister,  are  fixed,  we  should  say, 
by  the  laws  of  nature,  and  their  acknowledgment  in 
language  would  not  prove  any  considerable  advance  in 
civilization,  however  appropriately  the  names  them- 
selves might  have  been  chosen.  But  there  are  other 
relations,  of  later  origin,  snd  of  a  more  conventional 
character,  sanctioned,  it  is  true,  by  the  laws  of  society, 
but  not  proclaimed  by  the  voice  of  nature,  —  relations 
which  are  aptly  expressed  in  English  by  the  addition 
of  in-law,  as  father-in-law,  mother,  son,  daughter, 
brother,  and  sister-in-law.  If  the  names  for  these  re- 
lations could  be  vindicated  for  the  earliest  period  of 
Aryan  civilization,  we  should  have  gained  something 
considerable,  for  though  there  is  hardly  a  dialect,  in 
Africa  or  Australia  in  which  we  do  not  find  words  for 
father,  mother,  son,  daughter,  brother,  and  sister,  and 
hardly  a  tribe  in  which  these  natural  degrees  of  rela- 
tionship are  not  hallowed,  there  are  languages  in  which 
the  degrees  of  affinity  have  never  received  expression, 
and  tribes  who  ignore  their  very  meaning.1 

Sanikrit  Greek.  Latin.       Gothic.    Slavonic.       Celtic. 

Father-in-law  i      ivatura  exvpot  BOCCT        evaihra    svekr       W.  chwegrw> 

llother-in  law  I     «va»rtt  e/cvpo.  socru*      svuihro     svekrvj    W.  chwegjl 

Son-in-law  i  0ainatnr  yo^/Spof  gener  . .  . .        Bret  gevcr 

Daughter-in-law  i  enusha  wos  nurus  $  °:R'?'  ?  snocha 


Brother-in-law,     d«var  ,U*M\»*      \  A£r*  -}"££•  \ 

•Uter-in-law,        (nanandar)      J  glo.  ..        *« 


•yali      (wife's  < 
.ister)'          ) 


t»). 


See  Sir  J.  Lubbock,  TrantacL  of  Ethnol.  Society,  vi.  337. 


80  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

The  above  table  shows  that,  before  the  separation  of 
the  Aryan  race,  every  one  of  the  degrees  of  affinity  had 
received  expression  and  sanction  in  language,  for,  al- 
though some  spaces  had  to  be  left  empty,  the  coinci- 
dences, such  as  they  are,  are  sufficient  to  warrant  one 
general  conclusion.  If  we  find  in  Sanskrit,  the  word 
44  putra,"  son,  and  in  Celtic,  again,  "  paotr,"  son,  root 
and  suffix  being  the  same,  we  must  remember  that,  al 
though  none  of  the  other  Aryan  dialects  has  preserved 
this  word  in  exactly  the  same  form,  yet  the  identity  of 
the  Celtic  and  Sanskrit  term  can  only  be  explained  on 
the  supposition  that  "  putra  "  was  a  common  Aryan 
term,  well  known  before  any  branch  of  this  family  was 
severed  from  the  common  stem. 

In  modern  languages  we  might,  if  dealing  with 
similar  cases,  feel  inclined  to  admit  a  later  communica- 
tion, but  fortunately,  in  ancient  languages,  no  such  in- 
tercourse was  possible,  after  the  southern  brancli  of  the 
Aryan  family  had  once  crossed  the  Himalaya,  and  the 
northern  branch  set  foot  on  the  shores  of  Europe. 
Different  questions  are  raised  where,  as  is  the  case . 
with  ^ainatar  and  ya///3po'?,  originally  bridegroom  or 
husband,1  then  son-in-law,  we  are  only  able  to  prove 
that  the  same  root  was  taken,  and  therefore  the  same 
radical  idea  expressed  by  Greek  and  Sanskrit,  while 
the  derivation  is  peculiar  in  each  language.  Here,  no 
doubt,  we  must  be  more  careful  in  our  conclusions,  but 
gcno.rally  we  shall  find  that  these  formal  differences  are 
only  such  as  occur  in  dialects  of  the  same  language, 
when  out  of  many  possible  forms,  used  at  first  promis- 
cuously, one  was  chosen  by  one  poet,  one  by  another, 
and  then  became  popular  and  traditional.  This  at  least 

KoAciToi  6  yq/xa;  iurb  ra>v  OLKtiiav 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  31 

is  more  likely  than  to  suppose  that  to  express  a  relation 
which  might  be  expressed  in  such  various  ways,  the 
Greek  should  have  chosen  the  same  root  ya/j.  to  form 
ya/j.p6's  and  ya/jifipos,  independently  of  the  Hindu,  who 
took  that  root  for  the  same  purpose,  only  giving  it  a 
causal  form  (as  in  "  bhratar  "  instead  of  "  bhartar)," 
and  appending  to  it  the  usual  suffix,  "  tar :  "  thus  form* 
ing  "^a'matar,"  instead  of  "^amara"  or  "yamara." 
The  Lai  in  word  gener  is  more  difficult  still,  and  if  it  is 
the  same  word  as  the  Greek  -ya^./?pos  for  ya^po?,  the 
transition  of  m  into  n  can  only  be  explained  by  a  proc- 
ess of  assimilation  and  by  a  desire  to  give  to  the  an- 
cient word  gemer  a  more  intelligible  form.  When,  as 
it  happens  not  unfrequently,  one  of  the  Aryan  lan- 
guages has  lost  a  common  term,  we  are  sometimes  en- 
bled  to  prove  its  former  existence  by  means  of  deriva- 
tives. In  Greek,  for  instance,  at  least  in  the  classical 
language,  there  is  no  trace  of  nepos,  grandson,  which 
we  have  in  Sanskrit  "  napat,"  German  "  nefo  " ;  nor 
of  neptis,  Sanskrit  "  napti,"  German  "  nift."  Yet 
there  is  in  Greek  d-vei//to's,  a  first  cousin,  i.  e.  one  with 
whom  we  are  grandsons  together,  as  the  uncle  is  called 
the  little-grandfather,  avunculus  from  avus.  This  word 
d-vei/aos  is  formed  like  Latin  consobrinus,  i.  e.  comorori- 
nus,  one  with  whom  we  are  sister-children,  our  mod- 
ern cousin,  Italian  cugino,  in  which  there  remains  very 
little  of  the  original  word  soror,  from  which,  however, 
it  is  derived.  Ai/ei/ao?  therefore  proves  that  in  Greek, 
also,  some  word  like  re-revs  must  have  existed  in  the 
sense  of  child  or  grandchild,  and  it  is  by  a  similar  proc- 
ess that  we  can  prove  the  former  presence  in  Greek, 
of  a  term  corresponding  to  Sanskrit  "  syala,"  a  wife's 
brother.  In  Sanskrit  a  husband  calls  his  wife's  brother 


82  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

"  syala,"  his  wife's  sister  "  syiili."  Therefore,  in 
Greek,  Peleus  would  call  Amphitrite,  and  Poseidon 
Thetis,  their  "  syalis ":  having  married  sisters,  they 
would  have  "  syalis  "  in  common, —  they  would  be 
what  the  Greeks  call  cU'Aioi,  for  •"  sy "  between  two 
vowels  is  generally  dropt  in  Greek  ;  and  the  only 
anomaly  consists  in  the  short  e  representing  the  long 
a  in  Sanskrit. 

There  are  still  a  few  words  which  throw  a  dim  light 
on  the  early  organization  of  the  Aryan  family  life. 
The  position  of  the  widow  was  acknowledged  in  lan- 
guage and  in  law,  and  we  find  no  trace  that,  at  that 
early  period,  she  who  had  lost  her  husband  was  doomed 
to  die  with  him.  If  this  custom  had  existed,  the  want 
of  having  a  name  for  widow  Avould  hardly  have  been 
felt,  or,  if  it  had  been,  the  word  would  most  likely 
have  had  some  reference  to  this  awful  rite.  Now,  hus- 
band, or  man,  in  Sanskrit  is  "  dhava,''  a  word  which  does 
not  seem  to  exist  in  the  other  Aryan  languages,  for  dea, 
which  Pictet  brings  forward  as  Celtic,  in  the  sense  of  a 
man  or  person,  is  a  word  that  has  never  been  authenti- 
cated. From  "  dhava,"  Sanskrit  forms  the  name  of  the 
widow  by  the  addition  of  the  preposition  "  vi,"  which 
means  without;  therefore  "vi  dhava,"  husbandless,  wid- 
ow. This  compound  has  been  preserved  in  languages 
which  have  lost  the  simple  word  "dhava,"  thus  showing 
the  great  antiquity  of  this  traditional  term.  We  have  it 
not  only  in  Celtic  "  feadbh,"  but  in  Gothic  "  viduvo," 
Slavonic  "  vdova,"  Old  Prussian  "widdewu,"  and 
Latin  vidua.  If  the  custom  of  widow-burning  had  ex- 
isted at  that  early  period,  there  would  have  been  no 
"  vidhavas,"  no  husbandless  women,  because  they  would 
all  have  followed  their  husband  into  death.  Therefore 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  83 

the  very  name  indicates,  what  we  are  farther  enabled  to 
prove  by  historical  evidence,  the  late  origin  of  widow- 
burning  in  India.  It  is  true,  that  when  the  English 
Government  prohibited  this  melancholy  custom,  as  the 
Emperor  Jehangir  had  done  before,  and  when  the  whole 
of  India  was  said  to  be  on  the  verge  of  a  religious  rev- 
olution, the  Brahmans  were  able  to  appeal  to  the  Veda 
as  the  authority  for  this  sacred  rite,  and  as  they  had 
the  promise  that  their  religious  practices  should  not 
be  interfered  with,  they  claimed  respect  for  the  Suttee. 
Raghunandana  and  other  doctors  had  actually  quoted 
chapter  and  verse  from  the  Rig-veda,  and  Colebrooke,1 

l  "On  the  Duties  of  a  Faithful  Widow,"  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  iv.  pp. 
209,  219.  Calcutta,  1795.  The  principal  authorities  of  this  Essay  are  to  be 
seen  in  Colebrooke's  Digest,  book  iv.  cap.  3.  sect.  1,  which  is  a  literal  trans- 
lation of  a  section  of  G'agannatha's  "  Vivada-bhangarnava,"  to  be  found  in 
MS.  Wilson,  224,  vol.  iii.  p.  62.  See  some  interesting  remarks  on  this  sub- 
ject, and  the  correction  of  a  mistake  in  my  notes,  in  the  third  volume  of  the 
Journal  of  lite  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  Part.  I.,  Art.  VII.,  the  source  of  Cole- 
brooke's Essay,  On  the  Duties  of  a  Fnitlful  Hindu  IVuhno,  by  Fitzedward 
Hall,  F.sq..  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L.,  Oxon.  The  reasons  which  I  gave  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Hoyal  Asiatic  Society  for  my  opinion  that  Colebrooke  availed  him- 
self of  the  "  Vivada-bhangar»ava,"  while  writing  his  Essay  on  The  Dutie$ 
of  a  Fuitltful  Hindu  Widow,  were  as  follows:  "  On  page  117,  Colebrooke 
quotes:  — 

1.  A  passage  from  Vishnu ; 

2.  A  passage  from  Pratetas ; 

3.  A  passage  from  the  Smriti. 

The  same  passages,  in  exactly  the  same  order,  are  quoted  as  Nos.  133, 134, 
135  of  the  Digest. 

This  argument  has  been,  if  not  invalidated,  at  least  modified,  by  the  fact 
that  the  same  passages  occur  likewise  in  the  same  order  in  Raghunindana's 
"  Sud dhi tat tva,"  a  work  which  was  consulted  by  G'agannatha  in  the  com. 
pilation  of  his  Corpus  Juris. 

My  second  reason  was:  "  On  page  119,  Colebrooke  quotes:  — 

1.  A  saying  ascribed  to  Narada  (i.  e.  taken  from  the  "  Bnhan  Naradfya 

Purawa"  ); 

2.  A  passage  from  Brihaspati.  with  which,  at  the  end,  aline  of  Raghunan- 

daua's  commentary  is  mixed  up. 

3.  A  passage  supported  by  the  authority  of  Gotama  (or  Gautama).      The 
same  passages,  in  exactly  the  same  order,  form  Nos.  127, 128, 129  of  the  "  Vi- 

VOL.    II.  3 


84  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

the  most  accurate  and  learned  Sanskrit  scholar  we  have 
ever  had,  has  translated  this  passage  in  accordance  with 
their  views :  — 

"  Om !  let  these  women,  not  to  be  widowed,  good 
wives  adorned  with  collyriutn,  holding  clarified  butter, 
consign  themselves  to  the  fire  !  Immortal,  not  child- 
less, not  husbandless,  well  adorned  with  gems,  let  them 
pass  into  the  fire,  whose  original  element  is  water." 
(From  the  Rig-veda.) 

Now  this  is  perhaps  the  most  flagrant  instance  of 
what  can  be  done  by  an  unscrupulous  priesthood. 
Here  have  thousands  and  thousands  of  lives  been  sac- 
rificed, and  a  fanatical  rebellion  been  threatened  on  the 
authority  of  a  passage  which  was  mangled,  mistrans- 
lated, and  misapplied.  If  anybody  had  been  able  at 
the  time  to  verify  this  verse  of  the  Rig-veda,  the  Brah- 
mans  might  have  been  beaten  with  their  own  weapons ; 
nay,  their  spiritual  prestige  might  have  been  consider- 
ably shaken.  The  Rig-veda,  which  now  hardly  one 
Brahman  out  of  a  hundred  is  able  to  read,  so  far  from 
enforcing  the  burning  of  widows,  shows  clearly  that 
this  custom  was  not  sanctioned  during  the  earliest  pe- 
riod of  Indian  history.  According  to  the  hymns  of  the 
Rig-veda  and  the  Vaidik  ceremonial  contained  in  the 
Grihya-sutras,  the  wife  accompanies  the  corpse  of  her 


vadu-bhangarnava."  The  line  from  Raghunandana  follows  in  the  "  Vivada- 
Viangarnava,"  as  in  Colebrooke's  Essay,  immediately  after  the  extract  from 
Srihaspati,  and  the  mistake  of  mixing  the  words  of  Rnghunamlana  with  those 
of  lirihaspati  could  only  have  arisen  because,  instead  of  mentioning  Jia- 
ghunandana's  name,  the  MS.  of  the  '' Viv&da-bhangarwavR  "  reads:  "iti 
Sinartu/j.''  Neither  the  "SmUlliitattva,"  nor  any  other  work  that  1  have 
met  with,  gives  these  three  passages  with  the  extract  from  Raghunandana 
in  the  same  order  as  the  "  Vivada-bhangarnava  "  and  Colebrooke's  Essay. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  85 

husband  to  the  funeral  pile,  but  she  is  there  addressed 
with  a  verse  taken  from  the  Rig-veda,  and  ordered  to 
leave  her  husband,  and  to  return  to  the  world  of  the 
living.1  "•  Rise,  woman,"  it  is  said,  "  come  to  the 
world  of  life  ;  thou  sleepest  nigh  unto  him  whose  life 
is  gone.  Come  to  us.  Thou  hast  thus  fulfilled  thy 
duties  of  a  wife  to  the  husband  who  once  took  thy 
hand,  and  made  thee  a  mother." 

This  verse  is  preceded  by  the  very  verse  which  the 
later  Brah mans  have  falsified  and  quoted  in  support  of 
their  cruel  tenet.  The  reading  of  the  verse  is  beyond 
all  doubt,  for  there  is  no  various  reading,  in  our  sense 
of  the  word,  in  the  whole  of  the  Rig-veda.  Besides, 
we  have  the  commentaries  and  the  ceremonials,  and  no- 
where is  there  any  difference  as  to  the  text  or  its  mean- 
ing. It  is  addressed  to  the  other  women  who  are  pres- 
ent at  the  funeral,  and  who  have  to  pour  oil  and  butter 
on  the  pile :  — 

"  May  these  women  who  are  not  widows,  but  have 
good  husbands,  draw  near  with  oil  and  butter.  Those 
who  are  mothers  may  go  up  first  to  the  altar,  without 
tears,  without  sorrow,  but  decked  with  fine  jewels." 

Now  the  word,  "  the  mothers  may  go  first  to  the  al- 
tar," are  in  Sanskrit,  — 

"  A  rohantu  </anayo  yonim  agre; " 
and  this  the  Brahmans  have  changed  into,  — 

"  A  rohantu  //anayo  yonim  agne/i ; " 

1  See  Grimm's  Kssny  on  The  Burning  vf  the,  Demi ;  IJoth's  article  on 
Tli e  Bnritd  in  Jmliri;  Professor  Wilson's  article  on  The  si</>/><>seil  \'(ti<Jik  av- 
Aorityfortht  Burning  of  Hindu  Wihws ;  and  my  own  translation  of  the 
complete  documentary  e%  idcnce  published  l>y  Professor  Wilson  at  the  end 
of  his  article,  and  by  myself  in  the  Journnl  «f  (lie  (Itrmnn  Oriental  Sucitty, 
vol.  ix.  fasc.  4.  Professor  Wilson  was  the  iirst  to  point  out  the  falsification 
of  the  text,  and  the  change  of  "  yinim  agre  "  into  "yo 


86  COMPAKATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

—  a  small  change,  but  sufficient  to  consign  many  lives 
to  the  womb  (yonim)  of  fire  (agne/i).1 

The  most  important  passage  in  Vedic  literature  to 
prove  the  decided  disapproval  of  widow-burning  on 
the  part  of  the  ancient  Brahmans,  at  least  as  far  as 
their  own  caste  was  concerned,  occurs  in  the  Brihad- 
devata.  There  we  read  :  — 

"  Udirshva  narity  anaya  mritam  patny  anurohati, 
Bhrata  kaniyan  pretasya  nigaclya  pratishedliati 
Kuryad  etat  karma  hota.  devaro  na  bhaved  yadi, 
Pretanugamanaw  na  syad  id  brahmanasasanat. 
Varnanain  itaresham  ka.  stridharmo  'yan»  bhaven  na  v&." 

"  With  the  verse  '  Rise,  woman,'  the  wife  ascends  to 
follow  her  dead  husband  ;  the  younger  brother  of  the 
departed,  repeating  the  verse,  prevents  her.  The 
Hotri  priest  performs  that  act,  if  there  is  no  brother- 
in-law,  but  to  follow  the  dead  husband  is  forbidden,  so 
says  the  law  of  the  Brahmans.  Wiih  regard  to  the 
other  castes  this  law  for  women  may  be  or  may  not 


1  In  a  similar  manner  the  custom  of  widow-burning  has  been  introduced 
by  the  Brahmans  in  an  interpolated  passage  of  the  "  Toy-Cart,"  an  Indian 
drama  of  king  Sudraka,  which  was  translated  by  Professor  Wilson,  and 
has  lately   been   performed  at  Paris.       Le    Chariot,  d'Enfanl,  Drame  en 
vers  en  cinq  actes  et  sept  tableaux,  traduction  du  Drame  Indien  du   Eoi 
Soudraka,  par  MM.  Me"ry  et  Gerard  de  Nerval.    Paris,  1850. 

2  Part  of  this  passage  is  wanting  in  MSS.  B.  b,  but  it  is  found  in  A.  C. 
See  also  M.  M.,  "  Die  Todtenbestattung  bei  den  Brahmanen,"  Zdtschrifl 
dtr  Deutschen  Moryenldndischen  Gesettschafl,  vol.  ix.  p.  vi.  where  the  ritual 
is  somewhat  different. 

I  add  a  few  extracts  from  Mr.  H.  J.  Bushby's  work  on  Widow-Burning, 
p.  21,  "  Long  ago,  oriental  scholars,  both  native  and  European,  had  shown 
that  the  .<^  of  widow-burning  was  not  only  unsanctionecl,  but  imperatively 
forbidden,  by  the  earliest  and  most  authoritative  Hindoo  scriptures.  Nay, 
Colonel  Tod,  in  his  book  on  Rajpootana  (Annals  of  Rnjas/ltan,  1829,  vol.  i. 
p.  635\  had  actually  indicated  this  anomaly  in  Hindoo  doctrine  as  the  best 
point  of  attack  for  abolitionists  to  select.''  P.  22,  "  Scholars,  it  is  true,  had 
proved  Suttee  to  be  an  innovation  and  a  heresy;  but  it  was  an  innovation 
of  2,000  years  standing,  and  a  heresy  abetted  by  the  priesthood  since  th« 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  37 

After  this  digression,  we  return  to  the  earlier  period 
of  history  of  which  language  alone  can  give  us  any 
information,  and,  as  we  have  claimed  for  it  the  name 
ot  widow,  or  the  husbandless,  we  need  not  wonder 
that  the  name  for  husband,  also,  is  to  this  day  in  most 
of  the  Aryan  languages  the  same  which  had  been  fixed 
upon  by  the  Aryans  before  their  separation.  It  is 
"  pad  "  in  Sanskrit,  meaning  originally  strong,  like  Latin 
potis  or  pot  ens.  In  Lithuanian  the  form  is  exactly  the 
same,  "  patis,"  and  this,  if  we  apply  Grimm's  law,  be- 
comes "  faths,"as  in  Gothic  "  bruth-faths,"  bridegroom. 
In  Greek,  again,  we  find  TTOO-IS  instead  of  Trons.  Now, 
the  feminine  of  "  pati  "  in  Sanskrit  is  "  patni,"  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  old  Prussian  "pattin,"in  the  accu- 
sative "  wais-pattin,"  and  the  Greek  Troma  are  mere 
transcripts  of  it,  all  meaning  the  mistress. 

What  the  husband  was  in  his  house,  the  lord,  the 
strong  protector,  the  king  was  among  his  people. 
Now,  a  common  name  for  people  was  "vis"  in  San- 
skrit, from  which  the  title  of  the  third  caste,  the  house- 
holders, or  "  Vaisyas  "  is  derived.  It  comes  from,  the 

days  of  Alexander.  Though  unnoticed  by  Manu,  the  supplementary  writ- 
ings with  which  the  Hindoos,  like  the  Jews,  have  overlaid  their  primitive 
books,  are  profuse  in  its  praise."  P.  29,  "  Major  Ludlow  determined,  if 
possible,  to  induce  two  or  three  trustworthy  and  influential  natives  to  un- 
dertake the  cause;  to  ply  them  with  the  critical  objection  drawn  from  the 
older  Scriptures."  For  further  particulars  as  to  the  efforts  made  for  the 
suppression  of  Suttee  I  may  refer  to  the  interesting  narrative  of  Mr.  H.  J. 
Bushby,  on  "  Wido\v-13urning,"  published  originally  in  the  Quarterly 
Ret-ieu),  and  afterwards  as  a  separate  pamphlet.  (London:  Longmans, 
1355.)  It  shows  how  much  has  been  done,  and  therefore,  how  much  more 
tiny  be  done,  by  appealing  to  the  most  ancient  and  most  sacred  Sanskrit  au- 
thorities in  discussions  with  the  natives  of  India.  If  the  fact  that  Manu  never 
sanctions  the  burning  of  widows  could  produce  such  an  impression  on  the 
Vakeels  o'  IMjputana  as  described  by  Mr.  Bushby,  how  much  more  pow- 
erful would  be  an  appeal  to  the  Veda,  the  authority  of  which,  whenever  a 
discrepancy  occurs,  invariably  overrides  that  of  Manu! 


38  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

same  ivot  from  which  we  have  in  Sanskrit  "  vesa," 
house,  oT*os,  vicus,  Gothic  "  veihs,"  German  "  wich," 
and  the  modern  English  termination  of  many  names  of 
places.  Hence  "  vispati "  in  Sanskrit  meant  king,  i.  e. 
lord  of  the  people,  and  that  this  compound  had  become 
a  title  sanctioned  by  Aryan  etiquette  before  the  separa- 
tion, is  confirmed  in  a  strange  manner  by  the  Lithua- 
nian "  wiesz-patis,"  a  lord,  "  wiesz-patene,"  a  lady,  as 
compared  with  Sanskrit  "vis-patis"  and  "vispatni." 
There  was  therefore,  at  that  early  period,  not  only  a 
nicely  organized  family  life,  but  the  family  began  to  be 
absorbed  by  the  state,  and  here  again  conventional  titles 
had  been  fixed,  and  were  handed  down  perhaps  two 
thousand  years  before  the  title  of  Caesar  was  heard  of. 
Another  name  for  people  being  "  dasa  "  or  "  dasyu," 
"dasa-pati"  no  doubt  was  an  ancient  name  for  king. 
There  is,  however,  this  great  difference  between  "  vis  " 
and  "d&sa,"  that  the  former  means  people,  the  lat- 
ter subjects,  conquered  races,  nay  originally  enemies. 
"  Daayu  "  in  the  Veda  is  enemy,  but  in  the  Zend-Avesta, 
where  we  have  the  same  word,  it  means  provinces  or 
gentes ;  and  Darius  calls  himself,  in  his  mountain 
records,  "  king  of  Pc«rsia  and  king  of  the  provinces' 
("  kshayathiya  Parsaiya,  kshayathiya  dahyunam  "). 
Hence  it  is  hardly  doubtful  that  the  Greek  Setr-TroV^ 
represents  a  Sanskrit  title  "  d&sa-pati,"  lord  of  nations; 
but  \ve  cannot  admit  that  the  title  of  Hospodar,  which 
has  la  tely  become  so  notorious,  should,  as  Bopp  says,  be 
the  sr  oie  as  Sanskrit  "  vis-pati  "  or  "  dasa-pati."  The 
word  is  "  gaspadorus  "  in  Lithuanian  ;  in  Old  Slav. 
"  gos  od,"  "  gospodin,"  and  "  gospodar  ;  "  Pol.  "  gos- 
podu;  : ;  "  Boh.  "  hospodar."  A  Slavonic  g,  however, 
doe  i  not  correspond  to  Sanskrit  v  or  dy  nor  could 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  39 

the  t  of  "pad"  become  dJ  Benfey,  who  derives 
"  gospod,'  from  the  Vaidik  "</aspati,"  avoids  the  for- 
mer, but  not  the  latter  difficulty  ;  and  it  is  certainly 
better  to  state  these  difficulties  than  to  endeavor  to 
smuggle  in  some  ancient  Aryan  terms  in  defiance  of 
laws  which  can  never  be  violated  with  impunity. 

A  third  common  Aryan  word  for  king  is  "  rag  "  in 
the  Veda ;  rex,  regis,  in  Latin ;  "  reiks  "  in  Gothic, 
a  word  still  used  in  German,  as  "reich,"  reynum, 
"  Frank-reich,"  regnum  Francorum;  in  Irish  "  riogh  ; " 
Welsh  "  ri." 

A  fourth  name  for  king  and  queen  is  simply  father 
and  mother,  "  6ranaka  "  in  Sanskrit  means  fatlier,  from 
GAN,  to  beget ;  it  also  occurs,  as  the  name  of  a  well- 
known  king,  in  the  Veda.  This  is  the  Old  German 
"  chuning,"  the  English  "  king."  Mother  in  Sanskrit  is 
"  gam  "  or  "#ani,"  the  Greek  yw>/,  the  Gothic  "  quino," 
the  Slavonic  "  zena,"  the  English  "  queen."  Queen, 
therefore,  means  originally  mother,  or  lady ;  and  thus, 
again,  we  see  how  the  language  of  family  life  grew 
gradually  into  the  political  language  of  the  oldest 
Aryan  state,  and  how  the  brotherhood  of  the  family 
became  the  <f>parpia  of  the  state.2 

We  have  seen  that  the  name  of  house  was  known 
before  the  Aryan  family  broke  up  towards  the  south 
and  the  north,  and  we  might  bring  further  evidence  to 
tin;;  effect  by  comparing  Sanskrit  "  dama  "  with  Greek 
SO/AOC,  Lalin  domus,  Slav,  "domii,"  Celtic  "daimh,"  and 
Gothic  "timrjan,"  to  build,  from  which  English  "  tim- 

1  See  Sehleicher's  excellent  remarks  in  his  Formenlehre  der  Klrchen- 
tlawischtn  S/n-ache,  1852,  p.  107. 

2  See  Lectures  on  tie  Science  of  Language,  Second  Series,  p.  255,  and 
particularly  the  German  translation,  where  objections  to  this  derivation 
Vave  liven  answered. 


40  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

her,"  though  we  may  doubt  the  identity  of  the  Slavonic 
"  grod  "  and  "  gorod,"  the  Lithuanian  "  grod  "  with  the 
Gothic  "gards,"  Latin  hort-us,  Greek  ^dpros,  all  mean- 
ing an  inclosed  ground.  The  most  essential  part  of  a 
house,  particularly  in  ancient  times,  being  a  door  well 
fastened  and  able  to  resist  the  attacks  of  enemies,  we 
are  glad  to  find  the  ancient  name  preserved  in  Sanskrit 
"dvar,"  "  dvaras,"  Gothic  "daur,"  Lithuanian  "  dur- 
rys,"  Celtic  "  dor,"  Greek  6vpa,  Latin/ores.  The  builder 
also,  or  architect,  has  the  same  name  in  Sanskrit  and 
Greek,  "  takshan  "  being  the  Greek  re'/moi/.  The  Greek 
aoru,  again,  has  been  compared  with  Sanskrit  "  vastu," 
house;  the  Greek  Kia^rj  with  Gothic  "  haims,"  a  village ; 
the  English  "  home."  Still  more  conclusive  as  to  the 
early  existence  of  cities,  is  the  Sanskrit  "  puri,"  town, 
preserved  by  the  Greeks  in  their  name  for  town,  TTO'AIS  ; 
and  that  high-roads  also  were  not  unknown,  appears 
from  Sanskrit  "  path,"  "  pathi,"  "  panthan,"  and 
"  pathas,"  all  names  for  "  road,"  the  Greek  TTCITOS,  the 
Gothic  "fad,"  which  Bopp  believes  to  be  identical 
with  Latin  pons,  pontis,  and  Slavonic  "  ponti." 

It  would  take  a  volume  were  we  to  examine  all  the 
relics  of  language,  though  no  doubt  every  new  word 
would  strengthen  our  argument,  and  add,  as  it  were,  a 
new  stone  from  which  this  ancient  and  venerable  ruin 
of  the  Aryan  mind  might  be  reconstructed.  The  evi- 
dence, however,  which  we  have  gone  through  must  be 
sufficient  to  show  that  the  race  of  men  which  could 
coin  these  words,  —  words  that  have  been  carried  down 
the  stream  of  time,  and  washed  up  on  the  shores  of  so 
many  nations,  —  could  not  have  been  a  race  of  savages, 
of  mere  nomads  and  hunters.  Nay,  it  should  be  ob- 
served, that  most  of  the  terms  connected  with  chase 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  41 

and  warfare  differ  in  each  of  the  Aryan  dialects,  while 
words  connected  with  more  peaceful  occupations  be- 
long generally  to  the  common  heir-loom  of  the  Aryan 
language.  The  proper  appreciation  of  this  fact  in  its 
general  bearing  will  show  how  a  similar  remark  made 
bv  Niebuhr  with  regard  to  Greek  and  Latin,  requires  a 
very  different  explanation  from,  that  which  that  great 
scholar,  from  his  more  restricted  point  of  view,  was 
able  to  give  it.  It  will  show  that  all  the  Aryan  na- 
tions had  led  a  long  life  of  peace  before  they  separated, 
and  that  their  language  acquired  individuality  and  na- 
tionality, as  each  colony  started  in  search  of  new 
homes, — new  generations  forming  new  terms  con- 
nected with  the  warlike  and  adventurous  life  of  their 
onward  migrations.  Hence  it  is  that  not  only  Greek 
and  Latin,  but  all  Aryan  languages  have  their  peaceful 
words  in  common  ;  and  hence  it  is  that  they  all  differ 
so  strangely  in  their  warlike  expressions.  Thus  the 
domestic  animals  are  generally  known  by  the  same 
name  in  England  and  in  India,  while  the  wild  beasts 
have  different  names,  even  in  Greek  and  Latin.  I  can 
only  give  a  list,  which  must  tell  its  own  story,  for  it 
would  take  too  much  time  to  enter  into  the  etymolog- 
ical formation  of  all  these  words,  though  no  doubt  a 
proper  understanding  of  their  radical  meaning  would 
make  them  more  instructive  as  living  witnesses  to  the 
world  of  thought  and  the  primitive  household  of  the 
Aryan  race :  — 


42  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 


Cattle  : 

pasu 

patu 

ffwu? 

pecu 

io'lfl'uUrthu 

''r!w"ku 

\          '' 

.. 

Ux  and 

cow  : 

(go  dioin. 

i 

C  gao 

/Sous 

bos 

U.ll.U.  chuo 

Lett,  gow 

govjado 

Ir.  bo 

Ox: 

ulfs'lmu 

ukhslian 

vacca? 

G.  utihsan 

W.  ych 

Steer: 

Btliuru 

ttauru 

TOVpOS 

tauriis 

Btiur 

taura-s 

tour 

Ir.  tor 

Heifer  i 

ttari 

.. 

orcipa 

(stciilia) 

stuiro 

.. 

I  Ir.  cch 

Horse- 

a»u,  atva 

aspa 

IJTirOS 

equus 

A.S.  eoh 

aszua,  fen 

i. 

f      C|)0-0 

Foali 

.. 

irwAo; 

pullus 

G.  fula 

Dogi 

(van 

»pa 
(cnraica) 

g«lW 

cani, 

G.  hund 

>zu 

JR.  sobaka 
{  tiulf.  kuce 

|  Ir.  cu 

Bbcep  i 

avi 

.. 

ot? 

ovis 

)  G.  avi-str 
1  E.  ewe 

avl-s 

Slav,  ovj  za 

Ir.  oi 

Calf: 

vatsa 

.. 

iTaAot 

vitului 

Ir   tithul 

Hc-goat  i 

.. 

.. 

tan-pos 

caper 

O.lV.G.  liafr 

.. 

Ir  cubha 

She-goati 

apa 

pij 

ozi-s 

Ir  ai^he 

Sow  : 

eu  (kara) 

.. 

BUS 

O.1KG.  eu 

svinia 

Ir  suig 

klog: 

.. 

irdpxof 

porous 

O.li.U.  farah 

parsza-s 

Pol.  prosie 

Ir  pore 

Pig: 

ghiishvi 

.. 

XoJpos 

.. 

JO.N.grin 
j  Scotch,  gris 

\          - 

.. 

Donkey  t 

.. 

.. 

0?0f 

asinus 

ilsilll 

asila-s 

osilu 

,  W.  asvn 
!  Ir.  asail 

Mouse  : 

ninsh 

.. 

wi)s 

in  us 

0.  II.  G.  in  Qs 

M 

Pol.  mysz 

.. 

Fly  : 

makhhika 

muklishi 

/xuia 

in  usca 

O.ll.G.  micco 

muse 

K.  mucha 

Goose  : 

ha/,«a 

" 

X1?" 

anser 

U.ll.G.  kans 

zasi-s 

Boh.  hus, 

G-  goer* 

Of  wild  animals  some  were  known  to  the  Aryans 
before  they  separated,  and  they  happen  to  be  animals 
wl.ich  live  both  in  Asia  and  Europe,  the  bear  and  the 


Sanskrit         Greek.  Italian.        Teutonic.         Slavonic.         Celtic. 

Bean          riksha          opKros  ursiis  ..  Lith.  loky-»       Ir.  art 

Wolf:          vrika  AUKOS  {{"jirpus    \  °-  vulf          Ltth.  wilka-s     Ir.  brech 

To  them  should  be  added  the  serpent  :  — 

Sanskrit.        Greek.  Italian.  Teutonic.  Slavonic.         Celtic. 

tahi  iexl<!  ianstiia        lO.H.G.unc  ll.ith.  nngi-s  > 

^rpent:     <  VryvfAw)  <(ni"!-'iiilla)  S          ..  Vangury-t)     > 

fsaqia  (iprrerov  C«erp«»s       >         ..  >  ..          )W.  t&rff 

Without  dwelling  on  the  various  names  of  those  ani- 
mals which  had  partly  been  tamed  and  domesticated, 
while  others  were  then,  as  they  are  now,  the  natural 
enemies  of  the  shepherd  and  his  flocks,  we  proceed  at 
once  to  mention  a  few  words  which  indicate  that  this 
early  pastoral  life  was  not  without  some  of  the  most 
primitive  arts,  such  as  ploughing,  grinding,  weaving, 
and  the  working  of  useful  and  precious  metals. 

The  oldest  term  for  ploughing  is  AR,  which  we  find 


COMPAKATIVK  MYTHOLOGY.  43 

in  Latin  arare,  Greek,  dpow,  to  ear,  Old  Slav.  "  oi-ati," 
Gothic  "arjan,"  Lithuanian  "  arti,"  and  Gaelic  "ar." 
From  this  verb  we  have  the  common  name  of  the 
plough,  aporpov,  aratrum,  Old  Saxon  "  erida,"  Old 
Norse  "  ardhr,"  Old  Slavonic  "  oralo  "  and  "  oradlo," 
Lithuanian  "  arkla-s,"  Welsh  "  aradyr  "  and  "  arad," 
Cornish  "  aradar."  ''Apoupa  and  arvum  come  probably 
from  the  same  root.  But  a  more  general  name  for  field 
is  Sanskrit  "  pada,"  Greek  Tre'Sov,  Umbrian  "  perum," 
Latin  pedum  in  oppidum,  Pol.  "  pole,"  Saxon  "  folda," 
O.  H.  G.  " feld,"  "field;"  or  Sanskrit  «  a#ra,"  dypcfe, 
ager*  and  Gothic  "  akr-s."  l 

The  corn  which  was  grown  in  Asia  could  not  well 
have  been  the  same  which  the  Aryan  nations  after- 
wards cultivated  in  more  northern  regions.  Some  of 
the  names,  however,  have  been  preserved,  and  may  be 
supposed  to  have  had,  if  not  exactly  the  same,  at  least 
a  similar  botanical  character.  Such  are  Sanskrit 
"yava,"  Zend  "yava,"  Lithuanian  "javai,"  which  in 
Greek  must  be  changed  to  £€'a.  Sanskrit  "  sveta  " 
means  white,  and  corresponds  to  Gothic  "  hveit,"  O. 
H.  G.  "  huiz  "  and  "  wiz,"  the  Anglo-Saxon  "  hvit." 
But  the  name  of  the  color  became  also  the  name  of  the 
white  grain,  and  thus  we  have  Gothic  "  hvaitei,"  Lith. 
"  kwetv-s,"  the  English  "  wheat,"  with  which  some 

V 

scholars  have  compared  the  Slav.  "  shito,"  and  the 
Greek  o-iros.  The  name  of  corn  signified  originally 
what  is  crushed  or  ground.  Thus  "  yfcurna "  in  San- 
skrit means  ground,  #irna,"  pounded,  and  from  the 
same  radical  element  we  must  no  doubt  derive  the 
Russian  "  zerno,"  the  Gothic  "  kaurn,"  the  Latin 
granum.  In  Lithuanian,  "  girna  "  is  a  millstone,  and 

1  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  fifth  edition,  vol.  i.  p.  283. 


44  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

the  plural  "  girnSs  "  is  the  name  of  a  hand-mill.  The 
Russian  word  for  millstone  is,  again,  "  zernov,"  and 
the  Gothic  name  for  mill,  "qvairnus,"  the  later  "  quirn." 
The  English  name  for  mill  is  likewise  of  considerable 
antiquity,  for  it  exists  not  only  in  the  O.  H.  G.  "  muli," 
but  in  the  Lithuanian  "  maluna-s,"  the  Bohemian 
"  mlyn,"  the  Welsh  "  melin,"  the  Latin  mold,  and  the 
Greek 


We  might  add  the  names  for  cooking  and  baking, 
and  the  early  distinction  between  flesh  and  meat,  to 
show  that  the  same  aversion  which  is  expressed  in  later 
times,  for  instance,  by  the  poets  of  the  Veda,  against 
tribes  eating  raw  flesh,  Avas  felt  already  during  this 
primitive  period.  "  Kravya-ad"  (Kpeas-e'Sw)  and  "ama- 
ad  "  (w/xo's-eSw)  are  names  applied  to  barbarians,  and 
used  with  the  same  horror  in  India  as  <fyio<£aycu  and 
icpe<a<j>dyoi  in  Greece.  But  we  can  only  now  touch  on 
these  points,  and  must  leave  it  to  another  opportunity 
to  bring  out  in  full  relief  this  old  picture  of  human  life. 

As  the  name  for  clothes  is  the  same  among  all  the 
Aryan  nations,  being  "  vastra  "  in  Sanskrit,  "  vasti  '' 
in  Gothic,  vestis  in  Latin,  eo-fl^s  in  Greek,  "  fassradh  " 
in  Irish,  "  gwisk  "  in  Welsh,  we  are  justified  in  ascrib- 
ing to  the  Aryan  ancestors  the  art  of  weaving  as  well 
as  of  sewing.  To  weave  in  Sanskrit  is  "  ve,"  and,  in 
a  causative  form,  "  vap."  With  "  ve  "  coincide  the 
Latin  vieo,  and  the  Greek  radical  of  F^-T/HOV  ;  ivith 
"  vap,"  the  O.  H.  G.  "  wab,"  the  English  "  weave,"  the 
Greek  u^-aivw. 

To  sew  in  Sanskrit  is  "  siv,"  from  which  "  sutra,"  a 
thread.  The  same  root  is  preserved  in  Latin  suo,  in 
Gothic  "  siuja,"  in  O.  H.  G.  "  siwu,"  the  English  "  to 
sew,''  Lithuanian  "  siuv-u,"  Greek  Kaz-a-vu  for  Karoo  va>. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  45 

Another  Sanskrit  root,  with  a  very  similar  meaning, 
is  NAH,  which  must  have  existed  also  as  "  nabh"  and 
"  nadh."  From  "  null  "  we  have  Latin  neo  and  necto, 
Greek  veto,  German  "  nahan  "  and  u  navan,"  to  sew ; 
from  "  nadh,"  the  Greek  vr?#w;  from  "  nabh,"  the  San- 
skrit "  nabhi  "  and  "  nabha  "  or  "  ur/mnabha,"  the 
spider,  literally  the  wool-spinner. 

There  is  a  fourth  root  which  seems  to  have  had  orig- 
inally the  special  meaning  of  sewing  or  weaving,  but 
which  afterwards  took  in  Sanskrit  the  more  general 
sense  of  making.  This  is  "  ra&,"  which  may  corre- 
spond to  the  Greek  pair™,  to  stitch  together  or  to  weave  ; 
nay,  which  might  account  for  another  name  of  the 
spider,  apdxyi]  in  Greek,  and  aranea  in  Latin,  and  for 
the  classical  name  of  woven  wool,  Xa^vos  or  Aa;^,  and 
the  Latin  lana. 

That  the  value  and  usefulness  of  some  of  the  metals 
was  known  before  the  separation  of  the  Aryan  race, 
can  be  proved  only  by  a  few  words  ;  for  the  names  of 
most  of  the  metals  differ  in  different  countries.  Yet 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  iron  was  known,  and  its 
value  appreciated,  whether  for  defense  or  for  attack. 
Whatever  its  old  Aryan  name  may  have  been,  it  is 
clear  that  Sanskrit  "  ayas,"  Latin  ahes  in  aheneus,  and 
even  the  contracted  form,  ces,  ceris,  the  Gothic  "  ais," 
the  Old  High-German  "  er,"  and  the  English  "  iron," 
are  names  cast  in  the  same  mould,  and  only  slightly 
corroded  even  now  by  the  rust  of  so  many  centuries. 
The  names  of  the  precious  metals,  such  as  gold  and 
silver,  have  suffered  more  in  passing  through  the  hands 
of  so  many  generations.  But,  notwithstanding,  we 
are  able  to  discover  even  in  the  Celtic  "  airgiod  "  the 
traces  of  the  Sanskrit  "  ra^ata,"  the  Greek  apyvpos,  the 


46  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

Latin  argentum;  and  even  in  the  Gothic  "  gulth," 
gold,  a  similarity  with  the  Slavonic  "  zlato  "  and  Rus- 
sian "  zoloto,"  Greek  xp^Vos  and  Sanskrit  "  hiranyam," 
although  their  formative  elements  differ  widely.  The 
radical  seems  to  have  been  "  har-at,"  from  whence  the 
Sanskrit  "  harit,"  the  color  of  the  sun  and  of  the  dawn, 
as  aurum  also  descends  from  the  same  root  with  aurora. 
Some  of  the  iron  implements  used,  whether  for  peace- 
ful or  warlike  purposes,  have  kept  their  original  name, 
and  it  is  extremely  curious  to  find  the  exact  similarity 
of  the  Sanskrit  "  parasu  "  and  the  Greek  Tre/XeKvs,  axe, 
or  of  Sanskrit  "  asi,"  sword,  and  Latin  ensis. 

New  ideas  do  not  gain  ground  at  once,  and  there  is  a 
tendency  in  our  mind  to  resist  new  convictions  as  long 
as  we  can.  Hence  it  is  only  by  a  gradual  and  careful 
accumulation  of  facts  that  we  can  hope,  on  this  linguis- 
tic evidence,  to  establish  the  reality  of  a  period  in  the 
history  of  mankind  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the 
most  ancient  known  dialects  of  the  Aryan  world; 
previous  to  the  origin  of  Sanskrit  as  well  as  Greek  ; 
previous  to  the  time  when  the  first  Greek  arrived  on 
the  shores  of  Asia  Minor,  and  looking  at  the  vast  ex- 
panse of  sky  and  sea  and  country  to  the  west  and  north, 
called  it  "  Europa."  Let  us  examine  one  other  wit- 
ness, whose  negative  evidence  will  be  important.  Dur- 
ing this  early  period,  the  ancestors  of  the  Aryan  race 
must  have  occupied  a  more  central  position  in  Asia, 
whence  the  southern  branches  extended  towards  India, 
the  northern  to  Asia  Minor,  and  Europe.  It  would  fol- 
lov,  therefore,  that  before  their  separation,  they  could 
not  have  known  the  existence  of  the  sea,  and  hence,  if 
our  theory  be  true,  the  name  for  sea  must  be  of  later 
growth,  and  different  in  the  Aryan  languages.  And 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  47 

this  expectation  is  fully  confirmed.  We  find,  indeed, 
identical  names  in  Greek  and  Latin,  but  not  in  the 
northern  and  southern  branches  of  the  Aryan  family. 
And  even  these  Greek  and  Latin  names  are  evidently 
metaphorical  expressions,  —  names  that  existed  in  the 
ancient  language,  and  were  transferred,  at  a  later  time, 
to  this  new  phenomenon.  Pontus  and  TTOVTOS  mean 
sea  in  the  same  sense  as  Homer  speaks  of  vypa  /ceAeutfo, 
for  pontus  comes  from  the  same  source  from  which  we 
have  pons,  pontis,  and  the  Sanskrit  "pantha,"  if  not 
"  pathas."  The  sea  was  not  called  a  barrier,  but  a 
high-road,  —  more  useful  for  trade  and  travel  than  any 
other  road,  —  and  Professor  Curtius1  has  well  pointed 
out  Greek  expressions,  such  as  U-OVTOS  oAos  iroAtrjs  and 
OdXaa-aa  TroVrou,  as  indicating,  even  among  the  Greeks, 
a  consciousness  of  the  original  import  of  TTOI/TOS.  Nor 
can  words  like  Sanskrit  "  sara,"  Latin  saZ,  and  Greek 
aAs,  aAo's,  be  quoted  as  proving  an  acquaintance  with 
the  sea  among  the  early  Aryans.  "  Sara  "  in  Sanskrit 
means,  first,  water,  afterwards,  salt  made  of  water,  but 
not  necessarily  of  sea-water.  We  might  conclude  from 
Sanskrit  "  sara,"  Greek  oAs,  and  Latin  sal,  that  the 
preparation  of  salt  by  evaporation  was  known  to  the  an- 
cestors of  the  Aryan  family  before  they  separated.  But 
this  is  all  that  could  be  proved  by  oAs,  sal,  and  Sanskrit 
"  sara  "  or  "  salila  ;  "  the  exclusive  application  of  these 
words  to  the  sea  belongs  to  later  times ;  and  though  the 
Greek  eVaAtos  means  exclusively  marine,  the  Latin  in 
tula  is  by  no  means  restricted  to  an  island  surrounded 
by  salt  water.  The  same  remark  applies  to  words  like 
cequor  in  Latin  or  WAayos  in  Greek.  ©aAaoro-a  has  long 

1  See    Kuhn's    Journal    of   Comparative    Philology,    i.  34.       Professoi 
Co/tins  gives  the  equation :  IJWTO«:  7raTos=ireV0o« :  jra9o«=/?ev9os :  /Jaflor. 


48  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

been  proved  to  be  a  dialectical  form  of  Gdpao-o-a  or 
pao-o-a,  expressing  the  troubled  waves  of  the  sea  («-a 
8«  TTOVTOV  Iloo-etSoov),  and  if  the  Latin  mare  be  the  same 
as  Sanskrit  "  vari,"  "  vari  "  in  Sanskrit  does  not  mean 
"sea,"  but  water  in  general,  and  could,  therefore,  only 
confirm  the  fact  that  all  the  Aryan  nations  applied 
terms  of  a  general  meaning  when  they  had  each  to  fix 
their  names  for  the  sea.  Mare  is  more  likely  a  name 
for  dead  or  stagnant  water,  like  Sanskrit  "  maru,"  the 
desert,  derived  from  "  mri,"  to  die  ;  and  though  it  is 
identical  with  Gothic  "  marei,"  Slav,  "more,"  Irish 
"  muir,"  the  application  of  all  these  words  to  the  ocean 
is  of  later  date.  But,  although  the  sea  had  not  yet 
been  reached  by  the  Aryan  nations  before  their  com- 
mon language  branched  off  into  various  dialects,  navi- 
gation was  well  known  to  them.  The  words  "oar" 
and  "  rudder  "  can  be  traced  back  to  Sanskrit,  and  the 
name  of  the  ship  is  identically  the  same  in  Sanskrit 
("naus,"  "  navas  "),  in  Latin  (wawzs),  in  Greek(vavs), 
and  in  Teutonic  (Old  High-German  "nacho,"  Anglo- 
Saxon  "naca"). 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  look  at  the  evidence  hitherto 
collected,  and  which,  if  space  allowed,  might  have 
been  considerably  increased,1  without  feeling  that  these 


1  A  large  collection  of  common  Aryan  words  is  found  in  Grimm's  Hit" 
lory  of  the  German  Lrmcjiuxje.  The  first  attempt  to  use  them  for  histor- 
ical purposes  was  made  by  Kichhof;  but  the  most  useful  contributions  have 
sirce  leen  made  by  Winning  in  his  Manual  of  Comparative  Philuliifly,  1838; 
bv  Ruhn,  Curtins,  and  Fiirstemann;  and  much  new  material  is  to  be  found 
in  Hoop's  Gluasarium  and  1'ott's  Ktymoluginche  Forsrhwngen.  Pictet's  great 
work,  Les  Oriyines  Jn(to-Eur<i/>cennes,  2  vols.  1859  and  1863,  brings  to- 
gether the  most  complete  mass  of  materials,  but  requires  also  the  most  care- 
ful sifting.  With  regard  to  Sanskrit  words  in  particular,  the  greatest 
caution  is  required,  as  M.  Pictet  lias  not  paid  to  it  the  same  attention  au  to 
Celtic,  Latin,  Greek,  and  Slavonic. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  49 

words  are  the  fragments  of  a  real  language,  once 
spoken  by  a  united  race  at  a  time  which  the  historian 
has  till  lately  hardly  ventured  to  realize.  Yet  here 
we  have  in  our  own  hands,  the  relics  of  that  distant 
time ;  we  are  using;  the  same  words  which  were  used 

C5 

by  the  fathers  of  the  Aryan  race,  changed  only  by 
phonetic  influences  ;  nay,  we  are  as  near  to  them  in 
thought  and  speech  as  the  French  and  Italians  are  to 
the  ancient  people  of  Rome.  If  any  more  proof  was 
wanted  as  to  the  reality  of  that  period  which  must 
have  preceded  the  dispersion  of  the  Aryan  race,  we 
might  appeal  to  the  Aryan  numerals,  as  irrefragable 
evidence  of  that  long-continued  intellectual  life  which 
characterizes  that  period.  Here  is  a  decimal  system 
of  numeration,  in  itself  one  of  the  most  marvelous 
achievements  of  the  human  mind,  based  on  an  abstract 
conception  of  quantity,  regulated  by  a  spirit  of  philo- 
sophical classification,  and  yet  conceived,  matured,  and 
finished  before  the  soil  of  Europe  was  trodden  by 
Greek,  Roman,  Slave,  or  Teuton.  Such  a  system 
could  only  have  been  formed  by  a  very  small  com- 
munity, and  more  than  any  part  of  language  it  seems 
to  necessitate  the  admission  of  what  might  almost  be 
called  a  conventional  agreement  among  those  who 
first  framed  and  adopted  the  Aryan  names  for  one  to 
hundred.  Let  us  imagine,  as  well  as  we  can,  that  at 
the  present  moment  we  were  suddenly  called  upon  to 
invent  new  names  for  one,  two,  three,  and  we  may  then 
begin  to  feel  what  kind  of  task  it  was  to  form  and  fix 
such  words.  We  could  easily  supply  new  expressions 
for  material  objects,  because  they  always  have  some 
attributes  which  language  can  render  either  metaphor- 
ically or  periphrastically.  We  could  call  the  sea  "  the 


60  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

salt- water;"  the  rain,  "the  water  of  heaven  ;"  the 
rivers,  "  the  daughters  of  the  earth."  Numbers,  how- 
ever, are,  by  their  very  nature,  such  abstract  and 
empty  conceptions,  that  it  tries  our  ingenuity  to  the 
utmost  to  find  any  attributive  element  in  them  to 
which  expression  might  be  given,  and  which  might 
in  time  become  the  proper  name  of  a  merely  quantita- 
tive idea.  There  might  be  less  difficulty  for  one  and 
two;  and  hence,  these  two  numerals  have  received 
more  than  one  name  in  the  Aryan  family.  But  this 
again  would  only  create  a  new  difficulty,  because,  if 
different  people  were  allowed  to  use  different  names 
for  the  same  numeral,  the  very  object  of  these  names 
would  be  defeated.  If  five  could  be  expressed  by  a 
term  meaning  the  open  hand,  and  might  also  be  ren- 
dered by  the  simple  plural  of  the  word  for  fingers, 
these  two  synonymous  terms  would  be  useless  for  the 
purpose  of  any  exchange  of  thought.  Again,  if  a 
word  meaning  fingers  or  toes  might  have  been  used  to 
express  five  as  well  as  ten,  all  commerce  between  indi- 
viduals using  the  same  word  in  different  senses,  would 
have  been  rendered  impossible.  Hence,  in  order  to 
form  and  fix  a  series  of  words  expressing  one,  two, 
three,  four,  etc.,  it  was  necessary  that  the  ancestors  of 
the  Aryan  race  should  have  come  to  some  kind  of  un- 
conscious agreement  to  use  but  one  term  for  each  num- 
ber, and  to  attach  but  one  meaning  to  each  term.  This 
was  not  the  case  with  regard  to  other  words,  as  may  be 
seen  by  the  large  proportion  of  synonymous  and  poly- 
onymous  terms  by  which  every  ancient  language  is 
characterized.  The  wear  and  tear  of  language  in 
literary  and  practical  usage  is  the  only  means  for  re- 
ducing the  exuberance  of  this  early  growth,  and  for 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  51 

giving  to  each  object  but  one  name,  and  to  each  name 
but  one  power.  And  all  this  must  have  been  achieved 
with  regard  to  the  Aryan  numerals  before  Greek  wag 
Greek,  for  thus  only  can  we  account  for  the  coinci- 
dences as  exhibited  in  the  subjoined  table :  — 

Sanskrit.        Greek.  Latin.  Lithuanian.        Gothic. 


I. 

ekas, 

<rls  (olvri), 

unus, 

wienus, 

ains. 

II. 

dvau, 

Sl'tO, 

duo, 

du, 

tvai. 

III. 

tray  as, 

Tpeiv, 

tres, 

trys, 

threis. 

IV 

iatvaras, 

TeVrapet, 

^uatuor, 

keturi, 

fidrdr. 

(jEolic,  irwrvpes), 

(Oscan,  petora). 

V. 

pania, 

irtvre, 

quinque, 

pcnki, 

fimf. 

(Oscan,  pomtis). 

vr 

shash, 

«,    f 

sex, 

szeszi, 

saihs. 

VII. 

sapta, 

euro, 

septem, 

septyni, 

sibun. 

VIII. 

ashlau, 

OKTu'l, 

octo, 

asztiini, 

ah  tan. 

IX. 

tiava, 

ewea, 

norem, 

dewyni, 

iiiiui. 

X. 

dasa, 

MM, 

decem, 

deszimt, 

taihun. 

XI. 

ekadara, 

fV&tKO. 

undecim, 

wieno-lika, 

ain-Iif. 

XII. 

dvadasa, 

StaSexa, 

dnodecim, 

dwy-lika, 

tva-lif. 

XX. 

vinsati, 

eiKotri, 

•viginti, 

dwi-deszimti, 

tyaitipjus. 

c. 

satam, 

iicarov, 

centum, 

szimtas, 

taihun  taihund. 

til. 

sahasram, 

XiAioi, 

mille, 

tukstantis, 

thusundi. 

If  we  cannot  account  for  the  coincidences  between 
the  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  Walla- 
chian  numerals,  without  admitting  that  all  were  derived 
from  a  common  type,  the  Latin,  the  same  conclusion  is 
forced  upon  us  by  a  comparison  of  the  more  ancient 
numerals.  They  must  have  existed  ready  made  in  that 
language  from  which  Sanskrit  as  well  as  Welsh  is  de- 
rived ;  but  only  as  far  as  hundred.  Thousand  had  not 
received  expression  at  that  early  period,  and  hence 
the  names  for  thousand  differ,  not,  however,  without 
giving,  by  their  very  disagreement,  some  further  in- 
dications as  to  the  subsequent  history  of  the  Aryan 
race.  We  see  Sanskrit  and  Zend  share  the  name  for 
thousand  in  common  (Sanskrit  "  sahasra,"  Zend  "ha- 
zanra  "),  which  shows,  that  after  the  southern  branch 
had  been  severed  from  the  northern,  the  ancestors  of 


52  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

the  Bralmians  and  Zoroastrians  continued  united  for  a 
time  by  the  ties  of  a  common  lan£uao;e.  The  same 

•/  o        o 

conclusion  may  be  drawn  from  the  agreement  between 
the  Gothic  "  thusundi  "  and  the  Old  Prussian  "  tusim- 
tons "  (ace.),  the  Lithuanian  "  tukstantis,"  the  Old 
Slavonic  "  tiiisasta  ;"  while  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans 
stand  apart  from  all  the  rest,  and  seem  to  have  formed, 
each  independently,  their  own  name  for  thousand. 

This  earliest  period,  then,  previous  to  any  national 
separation,  is  what  I  call  the  mythopceic  period,  for 
every  one  of  these  common  Aryan  words  is,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  a  myth.  These  words  were  all  originally 
appellative  ;  they  expressed  one  out  of  many  attributes, 
which  seemed  characteristic  of  a  certain  object,  and  the 
selection  of  these  attributes  and  their  expression  in  lan- 
guage, represents  a  kind  of  unconscious  poetry,  which 
modern  languages  have  lost  altogether. 

Language  has  been  called  fossil  poetry.  But  as  the 
artist  does  not  know  that  the  clay  which  he  is  handling 
contains  the  remnants  of  organic  life,  we  do  not  feel  that 
when  we  address  a  father,  we  call  him  protector,  nor  did 
the  Greeks,  when  using  the  word  Sa^/>,  brother-in-law, 
know  that  this  term  applied  originally  only  to  the 
younger  brothers  of  the  husband,  who  stayed  at  home 
with  the  bride  while  their  elder  brother  was  out  in  the 
field  or  the  forests.  The  Sanskrit  "  devar "  meant 
originally  playmate,  —  it  told  its  own  story,  —  it  was 
a  myth  ;  but  in  Greek  it  has  dwindled  down  into  a 
mere  name,  or  a  technical  term.  Yet,  even  in  Greek 
it  is  not  allowed  to  form  a  feminine  of  Sa?jp,  as  little 
as  we  should  venture  even  now  to  form  a  masculine  of 
"  daughter." 

Soon,   however,   languages   lose  their  etymological 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  53 

conscience,  and  thus  we  find  in  Latin,  for  instance,  not 
only  vidua,  husbandless  ( "  Penelope  tarn  diu  vidua 
viro  suo  caruit  "),  but  viduus,  a  formation  which,  if 
analyzed  etymologically,  is  as  absurd  as  the  Teutonic 
*'  a  widower."  It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that 
the  old  Latin  viduus,1  a  name  of  Orcus,  who  had 
temple  outside  Rome,  makes  it  doubtful  whether  the 
Latin  vidua  is  really  the  Sanskrit  "  vi-dhava,"  however 
great  their  similarity.  At  all  events  we  should  have 
to  admit  that  a  verb  viduare  was  derived  from  vidua, 
and  that  afterwards  a  new  adjective  was  formed  with  a 
more  general  sense,  so  that  viduus  to  a  Roman  ear 
meant  nothing  more  than  privatus. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  how  does  the  fact,  that  the 
Aryan  languages  possess  this  treasure  of  ancient  names 
in  common,  or  even  the  discovery  that  all  these  names 
had  originally  an  expressive  and  poetical  power,  ex- 
plain the  phenomenon  of  mythological  language  among 
all  the  members  of  this  family  ?  How  does  it  render 
intelligible  that  phase  of  the  human  mind  which  gave 
birth  to  the  extraordinary  stories  of  gods  and  heroes,  — 
of  gorgons  and  chimeras,  —  of  things  that  no  human 
eye  had  ever  seen,  and  that  no  human  mind  in  a 
healthy  state  could  ever  have  conceived  ? 

Before  we  can  answer  this  question,  we  must  enter 
into  some  more  preliminary  observations  as  to  the 
formation  of  words.  Tedious  as  this  may  seem,  we 
believe  that  while  engaged  in  these  considerations  the 
mist  of  mythology  will  gradually  clear  away,  and  en- 
able us  to  discover  behind  the  floating  clouds  of  the 
dawn  of  thought  and  language,  that  real  nature  which 
mythology  has  so  long  veiled  and  disguised. 

1  Hartung,  Die  Religion  der  Romer,  vol.  ii.  p.  90. 


64  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

All  the  common  Aryan  words  which  we  have  hith- 
erto examined  referred  to  definite  objects.  They  are 
all  substantives,  they  express  something  substantial, 
something  open  to  sensuous  perception.  Nor  is  it  in 
the  power  of  language  to  express  originally  anything 
except  objects  as  nouns,  and  qualities  as  verbs.  Hence, 
the  only  definition  we  can  give  of  language  during  that 
early  state  is,  that  it  is  the  conscious  expression  in 
sound,  of  impressions  received  by  all  the  senses. 

To  us,  abstract  nouns  are  so  familiar  that  we  can 
hardly  appreciate  the  difficulty  which  men  experienced 
in  forming  them.  We  can  scarcely  imagine  a  language 
without  abstract  nouns.  There  are,  however,  dialects 
spoken  at  the  present  day  which  have  no  abstract 
nouns,  and  the  more  we  go  back  in  the  history  of  lan- 
guages, the  smaller  we  find  the  number  of  these  use- 
ful expressions.  As  far  as  language  is  concerned,  an 
abstract  word  is  nothing  but  an  adjective  raised  into  a 
substantive  ;  but  in  thought  the  conception  of  a  quality 
as  a  subject,  is  a  matter  of  extreme  difficulty,  and,  in 
strict  logical  parlance,  impossible.  If  we  say,  "  I  love 
virtue,"  we  seldom  connect  any  definite  notion  with 
"  virtue."  Virtue  is  not  a  being,  however  unsubstan- 
tial ;  it  is  nothing  individual,  personal,  active  ;  nothing 
that  could  by  itself  produce  an  expressible  impression 
on  our  mind.  The  word  "  virtue  "  is  only  a  short-hand 
expression  ;  and  when  men  said  for  the  first  time  "  I 
love  virtue,"  what  they  meant  by  it  originally  was,  "  I 
iove  all  things  that  become  an  honest  man,  that  are 
manly,  or  virtuous." 

But  there  are  other  words,  which  we  hardly  call 
abstract,  but  which,  nevertheless,  were  so  originally 
and  are  so  still,  in  form;  I  mean  in  words  like  "day* 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  55 

and  "  night,"  "  spring  "  and  "  winter,"  "  dawn  "  and 
" twilight,"  " storm  "  and  "thunder."  For  what  do 
we  mean  r.  we  speak  of  day  and  night,  or  of  spring 
and  winter  ?  We  may  answer,  a  season,  or  any  other 
portion  of  time.  But  what  is  time,  in  our  conceptions  ? 
It  is  nothing  substantial,  nothing  individual ;  it  is  a 
quality  raised  by  language  into  a  substance.  There- 
fore if  we  say  "  the  day  dawns,"  "  the  night  ap- 
proaches," we  predicate  actions  of  things  that  cannot 
act,  we  affirm  a  proposition  which,  if  analyzed  logically, 
would  have  110  definable  subject. 

The  same  applies  to  collective  words,  such  as  "  sky  " 
and  "  earth,"  "  dew  "  and  "  rain," —  even  to  "rivers  v 
and  "  mountains."  For  if  we  say,  "  The  earth  nourishes 
man,"  we  do  not  mean  any  tangible  portion  of  soil,  but 
the  earth,  conceived  as  a  whole ;  nor  do  we  mean  by 
the  sky  the  small  horizon  which  our  eye  can  scan. 
We  imagine  something  which  does  not  fall  under  our 
senses,  but  whether  we  call  it  a  whole,  a  power,  or  an 
idea,  in  speaking  of  it  we  change  it  unawares  into 
something  individual. 

Now  in  ancient  languages  every  one  of  these  words 
had  necessarily  a  termination  expressive  of  gender,  and 
this  naturally  produced  in  the  mind  the  corresponding 
idea  of  sex,  so  that  these  names  received  not  only  an 
individual,  but  a  sexual  character.  There  was  no  sub- 
stantive which  was  not  either  masculine  or  feminine ; 
neuters  being  of  later  growth,  and  distinguishable 
chiefly  in  the  nominative.1 

1  "  It  is  with  the  world,  as  with  each  of  us  in  our  individual  life:  for  as 
\te  leave  childhood  and  youth  behind  us,  we  bid  adieu  to  the  vivid  impres- 
sions things  once  made  upon  us,  and  become  colder  and  more  speculative. 
To  a  little  child,  not  only  are  all  living  creatures  endowed  with  human  in- 
telligence, but  everything  is  alive.  In  his  Kosmos,  Pussy  takes  rank  with 


56  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

What  must  have  been  the  result  of  this  ?  As  long 
as  people  thought  in  language,  it  was  simply  impossible 
to  speak  of  morning  or  evening,  of  spring  and  winter, 
without  giving  to  these  conceptions  something  of  an  in- 
dividual, active,  sexual,  and  at  last,  personal  character. 
They  were  either  nothings,  as  they  are  nothings  to  our 
withered  thought,  or  they  were  something;  and  then 
they  could  not  be  conceived  as  mere  powers,  but  as 
beings  powerful.  Even  in  our  time,  though  we  have 
the  conception  of  nature  as  a  power,  what  do  we  mean 
by  power,  except  something  powerful  ?  Now,  in  early 
language,  nature  was  Natura,  a  mere  adjective  made 
substantive ;  she  was  the  Mother  always  "  going  to 
bring;  forth."  Was  this  not  a  more  definite  idea  than 

o 

that  which  we  connect  with  nature  ?  And  let  us  look 
to  our  poets,  who  still  think  and  feel  in  language, 
—  that  is,  who  use  no  word  without  having  really  en- 
livened it  in  their  mind,  who  do  not  trifle  with  lan- 
guage, but  use  it  as  a  spell  to  call  forth  real  things, 
full  of  light  and  color.  Can  they  speak  of  the  sun,  or 
the  dawn,  or  the  storms  as  neutral  powers,  without 

Pa  and  Ma,  in  point  of  intelligence.  He  beats  the  chair  against  which  he 
has  knocked  his  head;  and  afterwards  kisses  it  in  token  of  renewed  friend- 
ship, in  the  full  belief,  that  like  himself,  it  is  a  moral  agent  amenable  to  re- 
wards and  punishments.  The  fire  that  burns  his  finger  is  "  Naughty  Fire," 
and  the  stars  that  shine  through  his  bedroom  window  are  Eyes,  like 
Mamma's,  or  Pussy's,  only  brighter. 

"  The  same  instinct  that  prompts  the  child  to  personify  everything  remains 
unchecked  in  the  savage,  and  grows  up  with  him  to  manhood.  Hence  in 
all  simple  and  early  languages,  there  are  but  two  genders,  masculine  and 
feminine.  To  develop  such  an  idea  as  that  of  a  muter,  requires  the  slow 
growth  of  civilization  for  its  accomplishment.  We  see  the  same  tendency 
to  class  everything  as  masculine  or  feminine  among  even  civilized  men,  i/ 
thev  are  uneducated.  To  a  farm  laborer,  a  bundle  of  hay  is  "  he,"  just  aa 
much  as  is  the  horse  that  eats  it.  He  resolutely  ignores  "  it,"  as  a  pronoun 
for  which  there  is  not  the  slightest  necessity."  — Printer's  Register,  Feb.  6 
1863. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  57 

doiiig  violence  to  their  feelings  ?  Let  us  open  Words- 
worth, ana  we  shall  hardly  find  him  use  a  single  ab- 
stract term  without  some  life  and  blood  in  it :  — 

Religion, 

"  Sacred  Religion,  mother  of  fonn  and  fear, 
Dread  arbitress  of  mutable  respect, 
New  rites  ordaining  when  the  old  are  wrecked, 
Or  cease  to  please  the  fickle  worshipper." 

Winter, 

"Humanity,  delighting  to  behold 
A  fond  reflection  of  her  own  decay, 
Hath  painted  Winter  like  a  traveller  old, 
Propped  on  a  staff,  and,  through  the  sullen  day, 
In  hooded  mantle,  limping  o'er  the  plain, 
As  though  his  weakness  were  disturbed  by  painr 
Or,  if  a  juster  fancy  should  allow 
An  undisputed  symbol  of  command, 
The  chosen  sceptre  is  a  withered  bough. 
Infirmly  grasped  within  a  palsied  hand. 
These  emblems  suit  the  helpless  and  forlorn; 
But  mighty  Winter  the  device  shall  scorn. 
For  he  it  was  —  dread  Winter!  —  who  beset. 
Flinging  round  van  and  rear  his  ghastly  net, 
That  host,  when  from  the  regions  of  the  Pole 
They  shrunk,  insane  Ambition's  barren  goal, — 
That  host,  as  huge  and  strong  as  e'er  delied 
Their  God,  and  placed  their  trust  in  human  pride! 
As  fathers  prosecute  rebellious  sons, 
He  smote  the  blossoms  of  their  warrior  youth; 
He  called  on  Frost's  inexorable  tooth 
Life  to  consume  in  manhood's  firmest  hold  .... 

And  bade  the  Snow  their  ample  backs  bestride,- 
And  to  the  battle  ride." 

So,  again,  of  Age  and  the  Hours:  — 

"  Age  I  twine  thy  brows  with  fresh  spring  flowers, 
And  call  a  train  of  laughing  Hours, 
And  bid  them  dance,  and  bid  them  sing; 
And  thou,  too,  mingle  in  the  ring!  " 

Nc'w,  when  writing  these  lines,  Wordsworth  could 
hardly  have  thought  of  the  classical  Horce:  the  con- 
ception of  dancing  Hours  came  as  natural  to  his  mind 
is  to  the  poets  of  old. 


58  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

Or,  again,  of  titorms  and  Seasons  :  — 

"  Ye  Storms,  resound  the  praises  of  your  Ring! 
And  ye  mild  Seasons,  —  in  a  sunny  clime, 
Midway,  on  some  high  hill,  while  father  Time 
Looks  on  delighted,  —  meet  in  festal  ring, 
And  loud  and  long  of  Winter's  triumph  sing! " 

We  are  wont  to  call  this  poetical  diction,  and  to 
make  allowance  for  what  seems  to  us  exaggerated  lan- 
guage. But  to  the  poet  it  is  no  exaggeration,  nor  was 
it  to  the  ancient  poets  of  language.  Poetry  is  older 
than  prose,  and  abstract  speech  more  difficult  than  the 
outpouring  of  a  poet's  sympathy  with  nature.  It  re- 
quires reflection  to  divest  nature  of  her  living  expres- 
sion, to  see  in  the  swift-riding  clouds  nothing  but 
vaporous  exhalations,  in  the  frowning  mountains  masses 
of  stone,  and  in  the  lightning  electric  sparks.  Words- 
worth feels  what  he  says,  when  he  exclaims,  — 

"Mountains,  and  Vales,  and  Floods,  I  call  on  you 
To  share  the  passion  of  a  just  disdain;" 

and  when  he  speaks  of  "the  last  hill  that  parleys  with 
the  setting  sun,"  this  expression  came  to  him  as  he  was 
communing  with  nature  ;  it  was  a  thought  untranslated 
as  yet  into  the  prose  of  our  traditional  and  emaciated 
speech ;  it  was  a  thought  such  as  the  men  of  old  would 
not  have  been  ashamed  of  in  their  common  every  day 
conversation. 

There  are  some  poems  of  this  modern  ancient 
which  are  all  mythology,  and  as  we  shall  have  to  refer 
to  them  hereafter,  I  shall  give  one  more  extract,  which 
to  a  Hindu  and  an  ancient  Greek  would  have  been 
more  intelligible  than  it  is  to  us :  — 

"  Hail,  orient  Conqueror  of  gloomy  N  ight ! 
Thou  that  canst  shed  the  bliss  of  gratitude 
On  hearts,  howe'er  insensible  or  rude  ; 
Whether  thy  punctual  visitations  smite 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  59 

The  haughty  towers  where  monarchs  dwell, 
Or  thou,  impartial  Sun,  with  presence  bright 
Cheer'st  the  low  threshold  of  the  peasant's  cell ! 
Not  unrejoiced  I  see  thee  climb  the  sky, 
In  naked  splendor,  clear  from  mist  and  haze, 
Or  cloud  approaching  to  divert  the  rays, 
Which  even  in  deepest  winter  .testify 

Thy  power  and  majesty, 
Dazzling  the  vision  that  presumes  to  gaze. 
Well  does  thine  aspect  usher  in  this  Day; 
As  aptly  suits  therewith  that  modest  pace 

Submitted  to  the  chains 
That  bind  thee  to  the  path  which  God  ordains 

That  thou  shouldst  trace, 

Till,  with  the  heavens  and  earth,  thou  pass  away! 
Nor  less,  the  stillness  of  these  frosty  plains  — 
Their  utter  stillness,  and  the  silent  grace 
Of  yon  ethereal  summits,  white  with  snow, 
(Whose  tranquil  pomp  and  spotless  purity 

Report  of  storms  gone  by 

To  us  who  tread  below)  — 
Do  with  the  service  of  this  day  accord. 
Divinest  object  which  th'  uplifted  eye 
Of  mortal  man  is  suffered  to  behold; 
Thou,  who  upon  these  snow-clad  Heights  has  poured 
Meek  lustre,  nor  forget'st  the  humble  Vale; 
Thou  who  dost  warm  Earth's  universal  mould, 
And  for  thy  bounty  wert  not  unadored 

By  pious  men  of  old ; 

Once  more,  heart-cheering  Sun,  I  bid  thee  hail! 
Bright  be  thy  course  to-day,  —  let  not  this  promise  fail!  " 

Why  then,  if  we  ourselves,  in  speaking  of  the  Sun 
or  the  Storms,  of  Sleep  and  Death,  of  Earth  and  Dawn, 
connect  either  no  distinct  idea  at  all  with  these  names, 
or  allow  them  to  cast  over  our  mind  the  fleeting 
shadows  of  the  poetry  of  old ;  why,  if  we,  when  speak- 
ing with  the  warmth  which  is  natural  to  the  human 
heart,  call  upon  the  Winds  and  the  Sun,  the  Ocean 
and  the  Sky,  as  if  they  would  still  hear  us  ;  why,  if 
plastic  thought  cannot  represent  any  one  of  these 
beings  or  powers,  without  giving  them,  if  not  a  human 
form,  at  least  human  life  and  human  feeling,  — 


60  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

should  we  wonder  at  the  ancients,  with  their  language 
throbbing  with  life  and  reveling  in  color,  if  instead 
of  the  gray  outlines  of  our  modern  thought,  they  threw 
out  those  living  forms  of  nature,  endowed  with  human 
powers,  nay,  with  powers  more  than  human,  inasmuch 
as  the  light  of  the  Sun  was  brighter  than  the  light  of  a 
human  eye,  and  the  roaring  of  the  Storms  louder  than 
the  shouts  of  the  human  voice.  We  may  be  able  to 
account  for  the  origin  of  rain  and  dew,  of  storm  and 
thunder ;  yet,  to  the  great  majority  of  mankind,  all 
these  things,  unless  they  are  mere  names,  are  still 
what  they  were  to  Homer,  only  perhaps  less  beautiful, 
less  poetical,  less  real,  and  living. 

So  much  for  that  peculiar  difficulty  which  the  human 
mind  experiences  in  speaking  of  collective  or  abstract 
ideas,  —  a  difficulty  which,  as  we  shall  see,  will  explain 
many  of  the  difficulties  of  Mythology. 

We  have  now  to  consider  a  similar  feature  of  ancient 
languages,  —  the  auxiliary  verbs.  They  hold  the  same 
position  among  verbs,  as  abstract  nouns  among  sub- 
stantives. They  are  of  later  origin,  and  had  all  origi- 
nally a  more  material  and  expressive  character.  Our 
auxiliary  verbs  have  had  to  pass  through  a  long  chain 
of  vicissitudes  before  they  arrived  at  the  withered  and 
lifeless  form  which  fits  them  so  well  for  the  purposes  of 
our  abstract  prose.  Habere,  which  is  now  used  in  all 
the  Romance  languages  simply  to  express  a  past  tense, 
"j'ai  aime","  I  loved,  was  originally,  to  hold  fast,  to 
hold  back,  as  we  may  see  in  its  derivative,  habence,  the 
reins.  Thus  tenere,  to  hold,  becomes,  in  Spanish,  an 
auxiliary  verb,  that  can  be  used  very  much  in  the  same 
manner  as  habere.  The  Greek  Ixw  is  the  Sanskrit 
'4  sab,"  and  meant  originally,  to  be  strong,  to  be  able, 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  01 

or  to  can.  The  Latin  fui,  I  was,  the  Sanskrit  "  bhu," 
to  be,  corresponds  to  the  Greek  <£u'o>,  and  there  shows 
still  its  original  and  material  power  of  growing,  in  an 
intransitive  and  transitive  sense.  "  As,"  the  radical  of 
the  Sanskrit  "  as-mi,"  the  Greek  e^.-//t,  the  Lithuanian 
"  as-rni,"  I  am,  had  probably  the  original  meaning  of 
breathing,  if  the  Sanskrit  "  as-u,"  breath,  is  correctly 
traced  back  to  that  root.  Stare,  to  stand,  sinks  down 
in  the  Romance  dialects  to  a  mere  auxiliary,  as  in  "  j'ai- 
e'te',"  I  have  been,  i.  e.  habeo-statum,  I  have  stood ; 
"j'ai-e*t6  convaincu,"  I  have  stood  convinced;  the  pho- 
netic change  of  statum  into  6te  being  borne  out  by  the 
transition  of  status  into  etat.  The  German  "  werden," 
which  is  used  to  form  futures  and  passives,  the  Gothic 
"  varth,"  points  back  to  the  Sanskrit  "  vnt,"  the  Latin 
verto.  "  Will,"  again,  in  "  he  will  go,"  has  lost  its 
radical  meaning  of  wishing  ;  and  "  shall  "  used  in  the 
same  tense,  "  I  shall  go,"  hardly  betrays,  even  to  the 
etymologist,  its  original  power  of  legal  or  moral  obliga- 
tion. "  Schuld,"  however,  in  German  means  debt  and 
sin,  and  "  soil,"  has  there  not  yet  taken  a  merely  tem- 
poral signification,  the  first  trace  of  which  may  be  dis- 
covered, however,  in  the  names  of  the  three  Teutonic 
Parcae.  These  are  called  "  Vurdh,"  "  Verdhandi,"  and 
"Skuld,"  —  Past,  Present,  and  Future.1  But  what 
could  be  the  original  conception  of  a  verb  which,  even 
in  its  earliest  application,  has  already  the  abstract 
meaning  of  moral  duty  or  legal  obligation  ?  Where 
could  language,  which  can  only  draw  upon  the  material 
world  for  its  nominal  and  verbal  treasures,  find  some- 
thing analogous  to  the  abstract  idea  of  he  shall  pay,  or, 
he  ought  to  yield?  Grimm,  who  has  endeavored  to 

*  Ruhn,  Ztitschrift  filr  veryleichende  Spracliforschung,  vol.  iii.  p.  449 


62     .  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

follow  the  German  language  into  its  most  secret  r. 
cesses,  proposes  an   explanation    of  this  verb,  whicfi 
deserves  serious   consideration,  however   strange    and 
incredible  it  may  appear  at  first  sight. 

Shall,  and  its  preterite  should,  have  the  following 
forms  in  Gothic :  — 

Present.  Preterite. 

Skal,  Skulda. 

Skalt,  Skuldes. 

Skal,  Skulda. 

Skulum,  Skuldedum. 

Skuluth,  Skuldeduth. 

Skulun,  Skuldedun. 

In  Gothic  this  verb  "  skal,"  which  seems  to  be  » 
present,  can  be  proved  to  be  an  old  perfect,  analogous 
to  Greek  perfects  like  oT3a,  which  have  the  form  of  the 
perfect  but  the  power  of  the  present.  There  are  sev- 
eral verbs  of  the  same  character  in  the  German  lan- 
guage, and  in  English  they  can  be  detected  by  the 
absence  of  the  s,  as  the  termination  of  the  third  person 
singular  of  the  present.  "  Skal,"  then,  according  to 
Grimm,  means,  "  I  owe,"  "  I  am  bound  ;  "  but  origi- 
nally it  meant  "  I  have  killed."  The  chief  guilt  pun- 
ished by  ancient  Teutonic  law,  was  the  guilt  of  man- 
slaughter,—  and  in  many  cases  it  could  be  atoned  for 
by  a  fine.  Hence,  "  skal "  meant  literally,  "  I  am 
guilty,"  "  ich  bin  schuklig ;  "  and  afterwards,  when  this 
full  expression  had  been  ground  down  into  a  legal 
phrase,  new  expressions  became  possible,  such  as  I 
have  killed  a  free  man,  a  serf,  i.  e.  I  am  guilty  of  a  free 
man,  a  serf;  and  at  last,  I  owe  (the  fine  for  having 
slain)  a  free  man,  a  serf.  In  this  manner  Grimm  ac- 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  63 

counts  for  the  still  later  and  more  anomalous  expres- 
sions, such  as  he  shall  pay,  i.  e.  he  is  guilty  to  pay  ("  er 
ist  schuldig  zu  zahlen  ")  ;  he  shall  go,  i.  e.  he  must  go  ; 
and  last,  I  shall  withdraw,  i.  e.  I  feel  bound  to  with- 
draw. 

A  change  of  meaning  like  this  seems,  no  doubt, 
violent  and  fanciful,  but  we  should  feel  more  inclined 
to  accept  it,  if  we  considered  how  almost  every  word  we 
use  discloses  similar  changes  as  soon  as  we  analyze  it 
etymologically,  and  then  follow  gradually  its  historical 
growth.  The  general  conception  of  thing  is  in  Walla- 
chian  expressed  by  "  lucru,  "  the  Latin  lucrum,  gain. 
The  French  "  chose  "  was  originally  causa,  or  cause. 
If  we  say,  "  I  am  obliged  to  go,"  or  "I  am  bound  to 
pay,"  we  forget  that  the  origin  of  these  expressions 
carries  us  back  to  times  when  men  were  bound  to  go, 
or  bound  over  to  pay.  Hoc  mefallit  means,  in  Latin, 
"  it  deceives  me,"  "  it  escapes  me."  Afterwards,  it  took 
the  sense  of  "  it  is  removed  from  me,"  I  want  it,  I 
must  have  it :  and  hence,  "  il  me  faut,"  I  must. 
Again,  /  may  is  the  Gothic 

Mag,  maht,  mag,  maguin,  maguth,  magun; 

and  its  primary  signification  was,  "  I  am  strong." 
Now,  this  verb  also  was  originally  a  preterite,  and 
derived  from  a  root  which  meant,  "  to  beget,"  whence 
the  Gothic  "magus,"  son,  i.  e.  begotten,  the  Scotch 
"  Mac,"  and  Gothic  "  magath-s,"  daughter,  the  Eng- 
lish "maid." 

In  mythological  lano-ua^e  we  must  make  due  allow- 

v  ~  O  ~ 

ance  for  the  absence  of  merely  auxiliary  words.  Even'' 
word,  whether  noun  or  verb,  had  still  its  full  original 
power  during  the  mythopoeic  ages.  Words  were 
heavy  and  unwieldy.  They  said  more  than  they 


64  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

ought  to  say,  and  hence,  much  of  the  strangeness 
of  the  mythological  language,  which  we  can  only  un- 
derstand by  watching  the  natural  growth  of  speech. 
Where  we  speak  of  the  sun  following  the  dawn,  the 
ancient  poets  could  only  speak  and  think  of  the  Sun 
loving  and  embracing  the  Dawn.  What  is  with  us 
a  sunset,  was  to  them  the  Sun  growing  old,  decay- 
ing, or  dying.  Our  sunrise  was  to  them  the  Night 
giving  birth  to  a  brilliant  child ;  and  in  the  Spring  they 
really  saw  the  Sun  or  the  Sky  embracing  the  earth 
•with  a  warm  embrace,  and  showering  treasures  into 
the  lap  of  nature.  There  are  many  myths  in  Hesiod, 
of  late  origin,  where  we  have  only  to  replace  a  full 
verb  by  an  auxiliary,  in  order  to  change  mythical 
into  logical  language.  Hesiod  calls  Nyx  (Night)  the 
mother  of  Moros  (Fate),  and  the  dark  Ker  (Destruc- 
tion) ;  of  Thanatos  (Death),  Hypnos  (Sleep),  and  the 
tribe  of  the  Oneiroi  (Dreams).  And  this  her  progeny 
she  is  said  to  have  borne  without  a  father.  Again,  she 
is  called  the  mother  of  Momos  (Blame),  and  of  the 
woful  Oizys  (Woe),  and  of  the  Hesperides  (Evening 
Stars),  who  guard  the  beautiful  golden  apples  on  the 
other  side  of  the  far-famed  Okeanos,  and  the  trees  that 
bear  fruit.  She  also  bore  Nemesis  (Vengeance),  and 
Apate  (Fraud),  and  Philotes  (Lust),  and  the  perni- 
cious Geras  (Old  Age),  and  the  strong-minded  Erig 
(Strife).  Now,  let  us  use  our  modern  expressions, 
such  as  "  the  stars  are  seen  as  the  night  approaches," 
"we  sleep,"  "we  dream,"  "we  die,"  "we  run  danger 
during  night,"  "  nightly  revels  lead  to  strife,  angry 
discussions,  and  woe,"  "  many  nights  bring  old  age, 
and  at  last  death,"  "  an  evil  deed  concealed  at  first  by 
the  darkness  of  night  will  at  last  be  revealed  by  the 


MYTHOLOGY.  t)5 

day,"  "  Night  herself  will  be  revenged  on  the  criminal," 
and  we  have  translated  the  language  of  Hesiod  —  a 
language  to  a  great  extent  understood  by  the  people 
whom  he  addressed  —  into  our  modern  form  of  thought 
and  speech.1  All  this  is  hardly  mythological  language, 
but  rather  a  poetical  and  proverbial  kind  of  expression 
known  to  all  poets,  whether  modern  or  ancient,  and  fre- 
quently to  be  found  in  the  language  of  common  people. 
Uranos,  in  the  language  of  Hesiod,  is  used  as  a  name 
for  the  sky  ;  he  is  made  or  born  that  "  he  should  be  a 
firm  place  for  the  blessed  gods."  2  It  is  said  twice, 
that  Uranos  covers  everything  (v.  127),  and  that 
when  he  brings  the  night,  he  is  stretched  out  every- 
where, embracing  the  earth.  This  sounds  almost  as  if 
the  Greek  myth  had  still  preserved  a  recollection  of 
the  etymological  power  of  Uranos.  For  "  Uranos  " 
is  the  Sanskrit  "  Varuwa  "  and  this  is  derived  from  a 
root  VAR,  to  cover;  "Varuwa"  being  in  the  Veda 
also  a  name  of  the  firmament,  but  especially  connected 
with  the  night,  and  opposed  to  "  Mitra,"  the  day.  At 
all  events,  the  name  of  "  Uranos  "  retained  with  the 
Greek  something  of  its  original  meaning,  which  was 
not  the  case  with  names  like  "  Apollo  "  or  "  Diony- 
sos ;  "  and  when  we  see  him  called  dorepoeis,  the  starry 

1  As  to  Philotes  being  the  Child  of  Night,  Juliet  understood  what  it 
meant  when  she  said :  — 

"  Spread  thy  close  curtain,  love-performing  Night! 
That  unawares  eyes  may  wink;  and  Romeo 
Leap  to  these  arms,  untalked  of  and  unseen!  — 
Lovers  can  see  to  do  their  amorous  rites 
By  their  own  beauties;  or,  if  Love  be  blind, 
It  best  agrees  with  Night." 
«  Hesiod,  Theog.  128:  — 

Tata  £e  TOI  irpuiroi'  nev  fyeiVaro  Tcrov  eaVTJj 
Qvpavbv  oarepoevfl',  tea  fj.iv  jrepl  Tracra  KaAvirroi* 
o<t>p'  fir)  jLiaKapetriri  0«oi«  eSos 
VOL.   II.  5 


66  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

heaven,  we  can  hardly  believe,  as  Mr.  Grote  says,  that 
to  the  Greek,  "  Uranos,  Nyx,  Hypnos,  and  Oneiroa 
(Heaven,  Night,  Sleep,  and  Dream)  are  persons,  just 
as  much  as  Zeus  and  Apollo."  We  need  only  read  a 
few  lines  further  in  Hesiod,  in  order  to  see  that  the 
progeny  of  Gsea,  of  which  Uranos  is  the  first,  has  not 
yet  altogether  arrived  at  that  mythological  personifica- 
tion or  crystallization  which  makes  most  of  the  Olym- 
pian gods  so  difficult  and  doubtful  in  their  original  char- 
acter. The  poet  has  asked  the  Muses  in  the  introduc- 
tion how  the  gods  and  the  earth  were  first  born,  and 
the  rivers  and  the  endless  sea,  and  the  bright  stars,  and 
the  wide  heaven  above  (ovpavo9  evpvs  i/n-ep^ev).  The 
whole  poem  of  the  "  Theogony  "  is  an  answer  to  this 
question  ;  and  we  can  hardly  doubt  therefore  that  the 
Greek  saw  in  some  of  the  names  that  follow,  simply 
poetical  conceptions  of  real  objects,  such  as  the  earth, 
and  the  rivers,  and  the  mountains.  Uranos,  the  first 
offspring  of  Gasa,  is  afterwards  raised  into  a  deity,  — 
endowed  with  human  feelings  and  attributes ;  but  the 
very  next  offspring  of  Ga3a,  Ovpea  //afcpa,  the  great 
Mountains,  are  even  in  language  represented  as  neuter, 
and  can  therefore  hardly  claim  to  be  considered  as  per- 
sons like  Zeus  and  Apollo. 

Mr.  Grote  goes  too  far  in  insisting  on  the  purely  lit- 
eral meaning  of  the  whole  of  Greek  mythology.  Some 
mythological  figures  of  speech  remained  in  the  Greek 
language  to  a  very  late  period,  and  were  perfectly 
understood, —  that  is  to  say,  they  required  as  little  ex- 
planation as  our  expressions  of  "  the  sun  sets,"  or  "  the 
sun  rises."  Mr.  Grote  feels  compelled  to  admit  this, 
but  he  declines  to  draw  any  further  conclusions  from  it. 
"  Although  some  of  the  attributes  and  actions  ascribed 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  67 

to  these  persons,"  he  says,  "  are   often  explicable   by 
allegory,  the  whole  series  and  system  of  them  never 
are  so :  the  theorist  who  adopts  this  course  of  explana- 
tion finds  that,  after  one  or  two  simple   and  obvious 
steps,  the  patli  is  no  longer  open,  and  he  is  forced  to 
clear  a  way  for  himself  by  gratuitous  refinements  and 
conjectures."     Here,  then,  Mr.  Grote  admits  what  lie 
calls  allegory  as  an  ingredient  of  mythology  ;  still  he 
makes  no  further  use  of  it  and   leaves  the  whole  of 
mythology  as  a  riddle,  that  cannot  and  ought  not  to  be 
solved,  as  something  irrational  —  as  a  past  that    wa3 
never   present  —  declining   even    to  attempt  a  partial 
explanation  of  this  important  problem  in  the  history  of 
the  Greek  mind.     IIAe'oi/  TJ/JLLO-V  TTOVTOS.     Such  a  want  of 
scientific  courage  would  have  put  a  stop  to  many  sys- 
tems   which   have  since  grown    to  completeness,  but 
which  at  first  had  to  make  the  most  timid  and  uncer- 
tain steps.     In  palajontological  sciences  we  must  learn 
to  be  ignorant  of  certain  things  ;  and  what  Suetonius 
says  of  the   grammarian,  "boni  grammatici  est  non- 
nulla  etiam  nescire,"   applies   with  particular  force  to 
the  mythologist.     It  is  in  vain  to  attempt  to  solve  the 
secret  of  every  name  ;  and  nobody  has  expressed  this 
with  greater  modesty  than  he  who  has  laid  the  most 
lasting  foundation  of  Comparative  Mythology.    Grimm, 
in  the  introduction  to  his  "  German  Mythology,"  says, 
without  disguise,  "  I  shall  indeed  interpret  all  that  I 
can,  but  I  cannot  interpret  all  that  I  should  like."  But 
surely  Otfried  Miiller  had  opened  a  path  into  the  laby- 
rinth of   Greek  mythology,   which   a  scholar  of  Mr. 
Grote's  power  and  genius  might    have  followed,  and 
which  at  least  he  ought  to  have  proved  as  either  right 
r)r  wrong.      How  late  mythological  language  was  in 


68          COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

voo-ue  among  the  Greeks  has  been  shown  by  O.  Miiller 

o  o 

(p.  65)  in  the  myth  of  Kyrene.  The  Greek  town  of 
Kvrene  in  Libya  was  founded  about  Olymp.  37 ;  the 
ruling  race  derived  its  origin  from  the  Minyans,  who 
reigned  chiefly  in  lolkos,  in  Southern  Thessaly ;  the 
foundation  of  the  colony  was  due  to  the  oracle  of 
Apollo  at  Pytho.  Hence,  the  myth,  —  "The  heroic 
maid  Kyrene,  who  lived  in  Thessaly,  is  loved  by 
Apollo  and  carried  off  to  Libya ;  "  while  in  modern 
language  we  should  say,  —  "  The  town  of  Kyrene,  in 
Thessaly,  sent  a  colony  to  Libya,  under  the  auspices  of 
Apollo."  Many  more  instances  might  be  given,  where 
the  mere  substitution  of  a  more  matter-of-fact  verb 
divests  a  myth  at  once  of  its  miraculous  appearance.1 
Kaunos  is  called  the  son  of  Miletos,  i.  e.  Kretan  colo- 
nists from  Miletos  had  founded  the  town  of  Kaunos  in 
Lycia.  Again,  the  myth  says  that  Kaunos  fled  from 
Miletos  to  Lycia,  and  his  sister  Byblos  was  changed, 
by  sorrow  over  her  lost  brother,  into  a  fountain. 
Here  Miletos  in  Ionia,  being  better  known  than  the 
Miletos  in  Kreta,  has  been  brought  in  by  mistake, 
Byblos  being  simply  a  small  river  near  the  Ionian 
Miletos.  Again,  Pausanias  tells  us  as  a  matter  of 
history,  that  Miletos,  a  beautiful  boy,  fled  from  Kreta 
to  Ionia,  in  order  to  escape  the  jealousy  of  Minos,  — 
the  fact  being,  that  Miletos  in  Ionia  was  a  colony  of  the 
Miletos  of  Kreta,  and  Minos  the  most  famous  king  of 
that  island.  Again,  Marpessa  is  called  the  daughter 
of  Evenos,  and  a  myth  represents  her  as  carried  away 
by  Idas,  —  Idas  being  the  name  of  a  famous  hero  of  the 
town  of  Marpessa.  The  fact,  implied  by  the  myth  and 
confirmed  by  other  evidence,  is,  that  colonists  started 

l  Kanne's  Mythology,  §  10,  p.  xxxii. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  69 

from  the  river  Evenos,  and  founded  Marpessa  in  Mes- 
sina. And  here  again,  the  myth  adds,  that  Evenos, 
after  trying  in  vain  to  reconquer  his  daughter  from  Idas, 
was  changed  by  sorrow  into  a  river,  like  Byblos,  the 
sister  of  Miletos. 

If  the  Hellenes  call  themselves  aurox^oves,  we  fancy 
we  understand  what  is  meant  by  this  expression.  But, 
if  we  are  informed  that  Truppa,  the  red,  was  the  oldest 
name  of  Thessaly,  and  that  Hellen  was  the  son  of 
Pyrrha,  Mr.  Grote  would  say  that  we  have  here  to 
deal  with  a  myth,  and  that  the  Greeks,  at  least,  never 
doubted  that  there  really  was  one  individual  called 
Pyrrha,  and  another  called  Hellen.  Now,  this  may  be 
true  with  regard  to  the  later  Greeks,  such  as  Homer 
and  Hesiod;  but  was  it  so  —  could  it  have  been  so 
originally?  Language  is  always  language,  —  it  always 
meant  something  originally,  and  he,  whoever  it  was, 
who  first,  instead  of  calling  the  Hellenes  born  of  the 
soil,  spoke  of  Pyrrha,  the  mother  of  Hellen,  must  have 
meant  something  intelligible  and  rational ;  he  could  not 
have  meant  a  friend  of  his  whom  he  knew  by  the 
name  of  Hellen,  and  an  old  lady  called  Pyrrha ;  he 
meant  what  we  mean  if  we  speak  of  Italy  as  the  mother 
of  Art. 

Even  in  more  modern  times  than  those  of  which  Ot- 
fried  Muller  speaks,  we  find  that  "to  speak  mytho- 
logically,"  was  the  fashion  among  poets  and  philoso- 
phers. Pausanias  complains  of  those  "  who  genealogize 
everything,  and  make  Pythis  the  son  of  Delphos." 
The  story  of  Eros  in  the  "  Phaedros  "  is  called  a  myth 
(/iu5os,  254  D  ;  Aoyos,  257  B)  ;  yet  Sokrates  says  iron- 
ically, "  that  is  one  of  those  which  you  may  believe  or 
lot  "  (TOUT-CIS  8^  e^eort  /x«i/  7m'0€cr0<u,  l£e<rn  Sf  <«0«  Again, 


70  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

when  he  tells  the  story  of  the  Egyptian  god  Theuth, 
he  calls  it  a  "tradition  of  old "  (d/co^i/  y  e^w  Xlytiv 
TUV  TrporeptDv),  but  Phsedros  knows  at  once  that  it  is 
one  of  Sokrates'  own  making,  and  he  says  to  him, 
"  Sokrates,  thou  makest  easily  Egyptian  or  any  other 
stones  "  (Xo'yot).  When  Pindar  calls  Apophasis  the 
daughter  of  Epimetheus,  every  Greek  understood  this 
mythological  language  as  well  as  if  he  had  said  "an 
after-thought  leads  to  an  excuse." *  Nay,  even  in  Ho- 
mer, when  the  lame  Litee  (Prayers)  are  said  to  follow 
Ate"  (Mischief),  trying  to  appease  her,  a  Greek  under- 
stood this  language  as  well  as  we  do,  when  we  say  that 
"  Hell  is  paved  with  good  intentions." 

When  Prayers  are  called  the  daughters  of  Zeus,  wo 
are  hardly  as  yet  within  the  sphere  of  pure  mythology. 
For  Zeus  was  to  the  Greeks  the  protector  of  the  sup- 
pliants, Zeus  iK£T«nos, — and  hence  Prayers  are  called 
his  daughters,  as  we  might  call  Liberty  the  daughter  of 
England,  or  Prayer  the  offspring  of  the  soul. 

All  these  sayings,  however,  though  mythical,  are 
not  yet  myths.  It  is  the  essential  character  of  a  true 
myth  that  it  should  no  longer  be  intelligible  by  a  ref- 
erence to  the  spoken  language.  The  plastic  character 
of  ancient  language,  which  we  have  traced  in  the  for- 
mation of  nouns  and  verbs,  is  not  sufficient  to  explain 

1  O  Muller  has  pointed  out  how  the  different  parents  given  to  the  "  Erin- 
yes "  by  different  poets  were  suggested  by  the  character  which  each  poet 
ascribed  to  them.  "  Evidently,"  he  says,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Enmenides, 
p.  184,  "  this  genealogy  answered  better  to  the  views  and  poetical  objects 
of  J£scliylos  than  one  of  the  current  genealogies  by  which  the  Erinyes  are 
ieri  red  from  Skotos  and  Ga^a  (Sophokles),  Kronos  and  Eurynome  (in  a 
work  ascribed  to  Epimenides),  Phorkys  (Euphorion),  Gsea  Etirynome  (Is- 
tron),  Adieron  and  Night  (Eudemos),  Hades  and  Persephone  (Orphic 
hymns).  Hades  and  Styx  (Athenodoros  and  Mnaseas).  See,  however 
Ares,  by  H.  D.  Muller,  p.  67. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  71 

how  a  myth  could  have  lost  its  expressive  power  or  its 
life  and  consciousness.  Making  due  allowance  for  the 
difficulty  of  forming  abstract  nouns  and  abstract  •verbs, 
we  should  vet  be  unable  to  account  for  anything  beyond 

v  i/  O  * 

allegorical  poetry  among  the  nations  of  antiquity ; 
mythology  would  still  remain  a  riddle.  Here,  then,  we 
must  call  to  our  aid  another  powerful  ingredient  in  the 
formation  of  ancient  speech,  for  which  I  find  no  better 
name  than  Polyonymy  and  Synonymy.1  Most  nouns,  as 
v/e  have  seen  before,  were  originally  appellatives  or 
predicates,  expressive  of  what  seemed  at  the  time  the 
most  characteristic  attribute  of  an  object.  But  as  most 
objects  have  more  than  one  attribute,  and  as,  under  dif- 
ferent aspects,  one  or  the  other  attribute  might  seem 
more  appropriate  to  form  the  name,  it  happened  by  ne- 
cessity that  most  objects,  during  the  early  period  of  lan- 
guage, had  more  than  one  name.  In  the  course  of  time, 
the  greater  portion  of  these  names  became  useless,  and 
they  were  mostly  replaced  in  literary  dialects  by  one 
fixed  name,  which  might  be  called  the  proper  name  of 
such  objects.  The  more  ancient  a  language,  the  richer 
it  is  in  synonyms. 

Synonyms,  again,  if  used  constantly,  must  naturally 
give  rise  to  a  number  of  homonyms.  If  we  may  call 
the  sun  by  fifty  names  expressive  of  different  qualities, 
some  of  these  names  will  be  applicable  to  other  objects 
also,  which  happen  to  possess  the  same  quality.  These 
different  objects  would  then  be  called  by  the  same 
name  —  they  would  become  homonyms. 

In  the  Veda,  the  earth  is  called  "  urvi  "  (wide), 
wprithvi"  (broad),  "  main  "  (great),  and  many  more 

1  See  the  A  uthor's  letter  to  Chevalier  Bunsen  On  the   Turanian  Lan- 
yuat,et,  p.  35 


72  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

names,  of  which  the  Nighantu  mentions  twenty-one. 
These  twenty-one  words  would  be  synonyms.  But 
"  urvi "  (wide)  is  not  only  given  as  a  name  of  the 
earth,  but  also  means  a  river.  "  Prithvi  "  (broad) 
means  not  only  earth,  but  sky  and  dawn.  "  Main  " 
(great,  strong)  is  used  for  cow  and  speech,  as  well  as 
for  earth.  Hence,  earth,  river,  sky,  dawn,  cow,  and 
speech,  would  become  homonyms.  All  these  names, 
however,  are  simple  and  intelligible.  But  most  of  the 
old  terms,  thrown  out  by  language  at  the  first  burst  of 
youthful  poetry,  are  based  on  bold  metaphors.  These 
metaphors  once  forgotten,  or  the  meaning  of  the  roots 
whence  the  words  were  derived  once  dimmed  and 
changed,  many  of  these  words  would  naturally  lose 
their  radical  as  well  as  their  poetical  meaning.  They 
would  become  mere  names  handed  down  in  the  con- 
versation of  a  family ;  understood,  perhaps,  by  the 
grandfather,  familiar  to  the  father,  but  strange  to  the 
son,  and  misunderstood  by  the  grandson.  This  misun- 
derstanding may  arise  in  various  manners.  Either  the 
radical  meaning  of  the  word  is  forgotten,  and  thus  what 
was  originally  an  appellative,  or  a  name,  in  the  etymo- 
logical sense  of  the  word  (nomen  stands  for  gnomen, 
"  quo  gnoscimus  res,"  like  natus  for  gnatus),  dwindled 
down  into  a  mere  sound  —  a  name  in  the  modern  sense 
of  the  word.  Thus  ^'s,  being  originally  a  name  of  the 
sky,  like  the  Sanskrit  "  dyaus,"  became  gradually  a 
proper  name,  which  betrayed  its  appellative  meaning 
only  in  a  few  proverbial  expressions,  such  as  Zevs  t/ct, 
or  "  sub  Jove  frigido." 

Frequently  it  happened  that  after  the  true  etymolog- 
ical meaning  of  the  word  had  been  forgotten,  a  new 
meaning  was  attached  to  it  by  a  kind  of  etymological 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  73 

instinct  which  exists  even  in  modern  languages.  Thus, 
Awjojyei/Tjs,  the  son  of  light  —  Apollo,  was  changed  into 
a  son  of  Lycia  ;  AiyXtos,  the  bright  one,  gave  rise  to  the 
myth  of  the  birth  of  Apollo  in  Delos. 

Again,  where  two  names  existed  for  the  same  object, 
two  persons  would  spring  up  out  of  the  two  names,  and 
as  the  same  stories  could  be  told  of  either,  they  would 
naturally  be  represented  as  brothers  and  sisters,  as  pa- 
rent and  child.  Thus  we  find  Selene,  the  moon,  side 
by  side  with  Mene,  the  moon  ;  Helios  (Surya),  the  Sun, 
and  Phcebos  (Bhava,  a  different  form  of  Rudra)  ;  and 
in  most  of  the  Greek  heroes  we  can  discover  human- 
ized forms  of  Greek  gods,  with  names  which,  in  many 
instances,  were  epithets  of  their  divine  prototypes. 
Still  more  frequently  it  happened  that  adjectives  con- 
nected with  a  word  as  applied  to  one  object,  were  used 
with  the  same  word  even  though  applied  to  a  different 
object.  What  was  told  of  the  sea  was  told  of  the  sky, 
and  the  sun  once  being  called  a  lion  or  a  wolf,  was 
soon  endowed  with  claws  and  mane,  even  where  the 
animal  metaphor  Avas  forgotten.  Thus  the  Sun  with 
his  golden  rays  might  be  called  "  golden-handed,"  hand 
being  expressed  by  the  same  word  as  ray.  But  when 
the  same  epithet  was  applied  to  Apollo  or  Indra,  a 
myth  would  spring  up,  as  we  find  it  in  German  and 
Sanskrit  mythology,  telling  us  that  Indra  lost  his  hand, 
and  that  it  was  replaced  by  a  hand  made  of  gold. 

Here  we  have  some  of  the  keys  to  mythology,  but 
the  manner  of  handling  them  can  only  be  learnt  from 
comparative  philology.  As  in  French  it  is  difficult  to 
find  the  radical  meaning  of  many  a  word,  unless  we 
compare  it  with  its  corresponding  forms  in  Italian, 
Spanish,  or  Provencal ;  we  should  find  it  impossible  to 


74  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

discover  the  origin  of  many  a  Greek  word,  without 
comparing  it  with  its  more  or  less  corrupt  relatives  in 
German,  Latin,  Slavonic,  and  Sanskrit.  Unfortunately 
we  have  in  this  ancient  circle  of  languages  nothing 
corresponding  to  Latin,  by  which  we  can  test  the  more 
or  less  original  form  of  a  word  in  French,  Italian,  and 
Spanish.  Sanskrit  is  not  the  mother  of  Latin  and 
Greek,  as  Latin  is  the  mother  of  French  and  Italian. 
But  although  Sanskrit  is  but  one  among  many  sisters, 
it  is,  no  doubt,  the  eldest,  in  so  far  as  it  has  preserved 
its  words  in  their  most  primitive  state ;  and  if  we  once 
succeed  in  tracing  a  Latin  and  Greek  word  to  its  cor- 
responding form  in  Sanskrit,  we  are  generally  able  at 
the  same  time  to  account  for  its  formation,  and  to  fix 
its  radical  meaning.  What  should  we  know  of  the 
original  meaning  of  Trcm/p,  p.^rrjp^  and  6vya.Ti]p,1  if  we 
were  reduced  to  the  knowledge  of  one  language  like 
Greek  ?  But  as  soon  as  we  trace  these  words  to  San- 
skrit, their  primitive  power  is  clearly  indicated.  O. 
Miiller  was  one  of  the  first  to  see  and  acknowledge 
that  classical  philology  must  surrender  all  etymological 
research  to  comparative  philology,  and  that  the  origin 
of  Greek  words  cannot  be  settled  by  a  mere  reference 
to  Greek.  This  applies  with  particular  force  to  mytho- 
logical names.  In  order  to  become  mythological,  it 
was  necessary  that  the  radical  meaning  of  certain  names 
should  have  been  obscured  and  forgotten  in  the  Ian- 

O 

gitage  to  which  they  belong.  Thus  what  is  mytholog- 
ical in  .one  language,  is  frequently  natural  and  intelli- 
gible in  another.  We  say,  "  the  sun  sets,"  but  in  our 

1  Here  is  a  specimen  of  Greek  etymology,  from  tl  e  Etymokgicum  Mag' 

turn  :  ©vyarTip  napa.  TO  Ovfiv  Kdl  bpjj.o.v  KO.TO.  •yaorptfs'  eic  rov  6v<a  icai  7oG  yaaTijp* 
Mytrai  yap  ra  SijXca  rax*01'  Kiwurflat  iv 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  V5 

own  Teutonic  mythology,  a  seat  or  throne  is  given  to 
the  sun  on  which  he  sits  down,  as  in  Greek  "  Eos  "  is 
called  xpvcroOpovos,  or  as  the  modern  Greek  speaks  of  the 
setting  sun  as  17X105  /JacnAem.  We  doubt  about  "  He- 
kate,"  but  we  understand  at  once  "EKCM-OS  and  'EKar»?/3o- 
Xos.  We  hesitate  about  Lucina,  but  we  accept  imme 
diately  what  is  a  mere  contraction  of  Lucna,  the  Latin 
Luna. 

What  is  commonly  called  Hindu  mythology  is  of  lit- 
tle or  no  avail  for  comparative  purposes.  The  stones  of 
xS'iva,  Vislmu,  Mahadeva,  Parvati,  Kali,  Krishna,  etc., 
are  of  late  growth,  indigenous  to  India,  and  full  of 
wild  and  fanciful  conceptions.  But  while  this  late  my- 
thology of  the  Purawas  and  even  of  the  Epic  poems, 
offers  no  assistance  to  the  comparative  mythologist,  a 
whole  world  of  primitive,  natural,  and  intelligible  my- 
ihology  has  been  preserved  to  us  in  the  Veda.  The 
mythology  of  the  Veda  is  to  comparative  mythology 
what  Sanskrit  has  been  to  comparative  grammar. 
There  is,  fortunately,  no  system  of  religion  or  mythol- 
ogy in  the  Veda.  Names  are  used  in  one  hymn  as 
appellatives,  in  another  as  names  of  gods.  The  same 
god  is  sometimes  represented  as  supreme,  sometimes  as 
equal,  sometimes  as  inferior  to  others.  The  whole 
nature  of  these  so-called  gods  is  still  transparent ;  their 
first  conception,  in  many  cases,  clearly  perceptible. 
There  are  as  yet  no  genealogies,  no  settled  marriages 
between  gods  and  goddesses.  The  father  is  sometimes 
the  son,  the  brother  is  the  husband,  and  she  who  in  one 
hymn  is  the  mother,  is  in  another  the  wife.  As  the 
conceptions  of  the  poet  varied,  so  varied  the  nature  of 
these  gods.  Nowhere  is  the  wide  distance  which  sep- 
arates the  ancient  poems  of  India  from  the  most  ancient 


76  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGT. 

literature  of  Greece  more  clearly  felt  than  when  we 
compare  the  growing  myths  of  the  Veda  with  the  full- 
grown  and  decayed  myths  on  which  the  poetry  of 
Homer  is  founded.  The  Veda  is  the  real  Theogony 
of  the  Aryan  races,  while  that  of  Hesiod  is  a  distorted 
caricature  of  the  original  image.  If  we  want  to  know 
whither  the  human  mind,  though  endowed  with  the 
natural  consciousness  of  a  divine  power,  is  driven 
necessarily  and  inevitably  by  the  irresistible  force  of 
language  as  applied  to  supernatural  and  abstract  ideas, 
we  must  read  the  Veda ;  and  if  we  want  to  tell  the 
Hindus  what  they  are  worshipping,  —  mere  names  of 
natural  phenomena,  gradually  obscured,  personified, 
and  deified,  —  we  must  make  them  read  the  Veda. 
It  was  a  mistake  of  the  early  Fathers  to  treat  the 
heathen  gods  l  as  demons  or  evil  spirits,  and  we  must 
take  care  not  to  commit  the  same  error  with  regard  to 
the  Hindu  gods.  Their  gods  have  no  more  right  to 
any  substantive  existence  than  Eos  or  Hemera,  —  than 
Nyx  or  Apate.  They  are  masks  without  an  actor, 
—  the  creations  of  man,  not  his  creators ;  they  are 
nomina,  not  numina  ;  names  without  being,  not  beings 
without  names. 

In  some  instances,  no  doubt,  it  happens  that  a  Greek, 
or  a  Latin,  or  a  Teutonic  myth,  may  be  explained  from 
the  resources  which  each  of  these  languages  still  pos- 
sesses, as  there  are  many  words  in  Greek  which  can  be 
explained  etymologically  without  any  reference  to  San- 

l  Aristotle  has  given  an  opinion  of  the  Greek  gods  in  a  passage  of  the 
Mettpliysics.  He  is  attacking  the  Platonic  ideas,  and  tries  to  show  theil 
contradictory  character,  calling  them  aur07rra  dKia,  eternal  uneternals,  »'.  e. 
things  that  cannot  have  any  real  existence;  as  men,  he  cont  nues,  maintain 
that  there  are  gods,  but  give  them  a  human  form,  thus  making  them  really 
"  immortal  mortals,"  i,  e.  nonentities. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  77 

skrit  or  Gothic.  We  shall  begin  with  some  of  these 
myths,  and  then  proceed  to  the  more  difficult,  which 
must  receive  light  from  more  distant  regions,  whether 
from  the  snowy  rocks  of  Iceland  and  the  songs  of  the 
"  Edda,"  or  from  the  borders  of  the  "  Seven  Rivers," 
and  the  hymns  of  the  Veda. 

The  rich  imagination,  the  quick  perception,  tre  in- 
tellectual vivacity,  and  ever- varying  fancy  of  the  Greek 
nation,  make  it  easy  to  understand  that,  after  the  sep- 
aration of  the  Aryan  race,  no  language  was  richer,  no 
mythology  more  varied,  than  that  of  the  Greeks. 
Words  were  created  ^vith  wonderful  facility,  and  were 
forgotten  again  with  that  carelessness  which  the  con- 
sciousness of  inexhaustible  power  imparts  to  men  of 
genius.  The  creation  of  every  word  was  originally  a 
poem,  embodying  a  bold  metaphor  or  a  bright  concep- 
tion. But  like  the  popular  poetry  of  Greece,  these 
words,  if  they  were  adopted  by  tradition,  and  lived  on 
in  the  language  of  a  family,  of  a  city,  of  a  tribe,  in  the 
dialects,  or  in  the  national  speech  of  Greece,  soon  forgot 
the  father  that  had  given  them  birth,  or  the  poet  to 
whom  they  owed  their  existence.  Their  genealogical 
descent  and  native  character  were  unknown  to  the 
Greeks  themselves,  and  their  etymological  meaning 
would  have  baffled  the  most  ingenious  antiquarian. 
The  Greeks,  however,  cared  as  little  about  the  etymo- 
logica.  individuality  of  their  words  as  they  cared  to 
know  the  name  of  every  bard  that  had  first  sung  the 
"  Aristeia  "  of  Menelaos  or  Diomedes.  One  Homer  was 
enough  to  satisfy  their  curiosity,  and  any  etymology 
that  explained  any  part  of  the  meaning  of  a  word  was 
welcome,  no  historical  considerations  being  ever  al- 
lowed to  interfere  with  ingenious  guesses.  It  is  known 


78  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

how  Sokrates  changes,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
Eros  into  a  god  of  wings,  but  Homer  is  quite  as  ready 
with  etymologies,  and  they  are  useful,  at  least  so  far  as 
they  prove  that  the  real  etymology  of  the  names  of  the 
gods  had  been  forgotten  long  before -Homer. 

We  can  best  enter  into  the  original  meaning  of  a 
Greek  myth  when  some  of  the  persons  who  act  in  it 
have  preserved  names  intelligible  in  Greek.  When 
we  find  the  names  of  Eos,  Selene,  Helios,  or  Herse,  we 
have  words  which  tell  their  own  story,  and  we  have  a 
TTOV  o-rta  for  the  rest  of  the  myth.  Let  us  take  the 
beautiful  myth  of  Selene  and  Endymion.  Endymion 
is  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Kalyke,  but  he  is  also  the  son  of 
JEthlios,  a  king  of  Elis,  who  is  himself  called  a  son  of 
Zeus,  and  whom  Endymion  is  said  to  have  succeeded 
as  king  of  Elis.  This  localizes  our  myth,  and  shows, 
at  least,  that  Elis  is  its  birthplace,  and  that,  according 
to  Greek  custom,  the  reigning  race  of  Elis  derived  its 
origin  from  Zeus.  The  same  custom  prevailed  in 
India,  and  gave  rise  to  the  two  great  royal  families  of 
ancient  India,  —  the  so-called  Solar  and  the  Lunar 
races :  and  Pururavas,  of  whom  more  by  and  by,  says 

of  himself,  — 

'  The  great  king  of  day 

And  monarch  of  the  night  are  my  progenitors; 
Their  grandson  I."    .... 

There  may,  then,  have  been  a  king  of  Elis,  JEthlios, 
and  he  may  have  had  a  son,  Endymion  ;  but  what  the 
mjth  tells  of  Endymion  could  not  have  happened  to 
the  king  of  Elis.  The  myth  transfers  Endymion  to 
Karia.  to  Mount  Latmos,  because  it  was  in  the  Lat- 
mian  cave  that  Selene  saw  the  beautiful  sleeper,  loved 
him  and  lost  him.  Now  about  the  meaning  of  Selene, 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  79 

there  can  be  no  doubt  ;  but  even  if  tradition  had  only 
preserved  her  other  name,  Asterodia,  we  should  have 
had  to  translate  this  synonym,  as  Moon,  as  "  Wan- 
derer among  the  stars."  But  who  is  Endymion  ?  It 
is  one  of  the  many  names  of  the  sun,  but  with  special 
reference  to  the  setting  or  dying  sun.  It  is  derived 
from  evSuw,  a  verb  which,  in  classical  Greek,  is  never 
used  for  setting,  because  the  simple  verb  Svo>  had  be- 
come the  technical  term  for  sunset.  Avowal  fjXwv,  the 
setting  of  the  sun,  is  opposed  to  di^aroAat,  the  rising. 
Now,  Su'w  meant  originally,  to  dive  into  ;  and  expres- 
sions like  ^eXtos  S'  ap'  e'Sv,  the  sun  dived,  presuppose  an 
earlier  conception  of  ISv  TroVrov,  he  dived  into  the 
sea.  Thus  Thetis  addresses  her  companions  ("  II." 
xviii.  140)  :  — 

'  Yjieis  fjiev  vvv  Svre  0aAa<rcn(;  evpe'a  K^An-ov. 

"  You  may  now  dive  into  the  broad  bosom  of  the  sea." 

Other  dialects,  particularly  of  maritime  nations,  have 
the  same  expression.  In  Latin  we  find,1  "  Cur  mer- 
gat  seras  saquore  flammas."  In  Old  Norse,  "  Sol 
gengr  i  segi."  Slavonic  nations  represent  the  sun  as  a 
woman  stepping  into  her  bath  in  the  evening,  and 
rising  refreshed  and  purified  in  the  morning  ;  or  they 
speak  of  the  Sea  as  the  mother  of  the  Sun  (the  "  apam 
napat"),  and  of  the  Sun  as  sinking  into  her  mother's 
arms  at  night.  We  may  suppose,  therefore,  that  in 
some  Greek  dialect  &8wa  was  used  in  the  same  sense  ; 
and  that  from  ev&via,  evSu/m  was  formed  to  express  sun- 
set. From  this  was  formed  e^Su/uW,2  like  abpavttav  from 
o's,  and  like  most  of  Ine  names  of  the  Greek 


1  Grimm's  Deutsche  ^[ythologie,  p   704. 

a  Lauer,  in  his  System  of  Greek  Mythology,  explains  Endymion  as   the 
Diver.    Gerhard,  in  his  Greek  Mythology,  gives,  'EySwfuW  as  6  iv  8u>jj  <•»'. 


80  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 


months.  If  li'Su/m  had  become  the  commonly  re- 
ceived name  for  sunset,  the  myth  of  Endytnion  could 
never  have  arisen.  But  the  original  meaning  of  Endy- 
mion  being  once  forgotten,  what  was  told  originally  of 
the  setting  sun  was  now  told  of  a  name,  which,  in 
order  to  have  any  meaning,  had  to  be  changed  into  a 
god  or  a  hero.  The  setting  sun  once  slept  in  the  Lat- 
mian  cave,  the  cave  of  night  —  "  Latmos  "  being 
derived  from  the  same  root  as  "  Leto,"  "  Latona," 
.the  night  ;  —  but  now  he  sleeps  on  Mount  Latmos,  in 
Karia.  Endymion,  sinking  into  eternal  sleep  after  a 
life  of  but  one  day,  was  once  the  setting  sun,  the  son 
of  Zeus,  the  brilliant  Sky,  and  of  Kalyke,  the  cover- 
ing Night  (from  KuAvVra))  ;  or,  according  to  another 
saying,  of  Zeus  and  Protogeneia,  the  first-born  god- 
dess, or  the  Dawn,  who  is  always  represented,  either 
as  the  mother,  the  sister,  or  the  forsaken  wife  of  the 
Sun.  Now  he  is  the  son  of  a  king  of  Elis,  probably 
for  no  other  reason  except  that  it  was  usual  for  kings 
to  take  names  of  good  omen,  connected  with  the  sun, 
or  the  moon,  or  the  stars,  —  in  which  case  a  myth, 
connected  with  a  solar  name,  would  naturally  be  trans- 
ferred to  its  human  namesake.  In  the  ancient  poetical 
and  proverbial  language  of  Elis,  people  said  "Selene 
loves  and  watches  Endymion,"  instead  of  "  it  is  getting 
late  ;  "  "  Selene  embraces  Endymion,"  instead  of  "  the 
sun  is  setting  and  the  moon  is  rising  ;  "  "  Selene  kisses 
Endymion  into  sleep,"  instead  of  "  it  is  night."  These 
expressions  remained  long  after  their  meaning  had 
ceased  to  be  understood  ;  and  as  the  human  mind  is 
generally  as  anxious  for  a  reason  as  ready  to  invent 
one,  a  story  arose  by  common  consent,  and  without  any 
personal  effort,  that  Endymion  must  have  been  a  young 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  81 

lad  loved  by  a  young  lady,  Selene ;  and,  if  children 
were  anxious  to  know  still  more,  there  would  always 
be  a  grandmother  happy  to  tell  them  that  this  young 
Endymion  was  the  son  of  the  Protogeneia,  —  she  half 
meaning  and  half  not  meaning  by  that  name  the  dawn 
who  gave  birth  to  the  sun ;  or  of  Kalyke,  the  dark  and 
covering  Night.  This  name,  once  touched,  would  set 
many  chords  vibrating  ;  three  or  four  different  reasons 
might  be  given  (as  they  really  were  given  by  ancient 
poets)  why  Endymion  fell  into  this  everlasting  sleep, 
and  if  any  one  of  these  was  alluded  to  by  a  popular 
poet,  it  became  a  mythological  fact,  i-epeated  by  later 
poets ;  so  that  Endymion  grew  at  last  almost  into  a  type, 
no  longer  of  the  setting  sun,  but  of  a  handsome  boy  be- 
loved of  a  chaste  maiden,  and  therefore  a  most  likely 
name  for  a  young  prince.  Many  myths  have  thus  been 
transferred  to  real  persons,  by  a  mere  similarity  of 
name,  though  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  is  no  his- 
torical evidence  whatsoever  that  there  ever  was  a 
prince  of  Elis,  called  by  the  name  of  Endymion. 

Such  is  the  growth  of  a  legend,  originally  a  mere 
word,  a  /j.S0os,  probably  one  of  those  many  words  which 
have  but  a  local  currency,  and  lose  their  value  if  they 
are  taken  to  distant  places,  words  useless  for  the  daily 
interchange  of  thought,  spurious  coins  in  the  hands  of 
the  many,  —  yet  not  thrown  away,  but  preserved  as 
curiosities  and  ornaments,  and  deciphered  at  last  by  the 
antiquarian,  after  the  lapse  of  many  centuries.  Un- 
fortunately, we  do  not  possess  these  legends  as  they 
passed  originally  from  mouth  to  mouth  in  villages  or 
mountain  castles,  —  legends  such  as  Grimm  has  col- 
lected in  his  "  Mythology,"  from  the  language  of  the 
poor  people  in  Germany.  We  do  not  know  them,  as 


82  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

they  were  told  by  the  older  members  of  a  family,  who 
spoke  a  language  half  intelligible  to  themselves  and 
strange  to  their  children,  or  as  the  poet  of  a  rising  city 
embodied  the  traditions  of  his  neighborhood  in  a  con- 
tinuous poem,  and  gave  to  them  their  first  form  and  per- 
manence. Unless  where  Homer  has  preserved  a  local 
myth,  all  is  arranged  as  a  system  ;  with  the  "  Theog- 
ony "  as  its  beginning,  the  "  Siege  of  Troy "  as  its 
centre,  and  the  "  Return  of  the  Heroes  "  as  its  end. 
But  how  many  parts  of  Greek  mythology  are  never 
mentioned  by  Homer !  We  then  come  to  Hesiod  — 
a  moralist  and  theologian,  and  again  we  find  but  a 
small  segment  of  the  mythological  language  of  Greece. 
Thus  our  chief  sources  are  the  ancient  chroniclers,  who 
took  mythology  for  history,  and  used  of  it  only  so  much 
as  answered  their  purpose.  And  not  even  these  are 
preserved  to  us,  but  we  only  believe  that  they  formed 
the  sources  from  which  later  writers,  such  as  Apollo- 
doros  and  the  scholiasts,  borrowed  their  information. 
The  first  duty  of  the  mythologist  is,  therefore,  to  dis- 
entangle this  cluster,  to  remove  all  that  is  systematic, 
and  to  reduce  each  myth  to  its  primitive  unsystematic 
form.  Much  that  is  unessential  has  to  be  cut  away  al- 
together, and  after  the  rust  is  removed,  we  have  to  de- 
termine first  of  all,  as  with  ancient  coins,  the  locality, 
and,  if  possible,  the  age,  of  each  myth,  by  the  charac- 
ter of  its  workmanship  ;  and  as  we  arrange  ancient 
medals  into  gold,  silver,  and  copper  coins,  we  have  to 
distinguish  most  carefully  between  the  legends  of  gods, 
heroes,  and  men.  If,  then,  we  succeed  in  deciphering 
the  ancient  namos  and  legends  of  Greek  or  any  other 
mythology,  we  learn  that  the  past  which  stands  before 
our  eyes  in  Greek  mythology,  has  had  its  present,  that 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  83 

there  are  traces  of  organic  thought  in  these  petrified 
relics,  and  that  they  once  formed  the  surface  of  the 
Greek  language.  The  legend  of  Endymion  was  pres- 
ent at  the  time  when  the  people  of  Elis  understood 
the  old  saying  of  the  Moon  (or  Selene)  rising  under 
the  cover  of  Night  (or  in  the  Latmian  cave),  to  see  and 
admire,  in  silent  love,  the  beauty  of  the  setting  Sun, 
the  sleeper  Endymion,  the  son  of  Zeus,  who  had 
gi'anted  to  him  the  double  boon  of  eternal  sleep  and 
everlasting  youth. 

Endymion  is  not  the  Sun  in  the  divine  character  of 
Phoibos  Apollon,  but  a  conception  of  the  Sun  in  his 
daily  course,  as  rising  early  from  the  womb  of  Dawn, 
and  after  a  short  and  brilliant  career,  setting  in  the 
evening,  never  to  return  again  to  this  mortal  life. 
Similar  conceptions  occur  in  most  mythologies.  In 
Betshuana,  an  Afiican  dialect,  "  the  sun  sets  "  is  ex- 
pressed by  "the  sun  dies."1  In  Aryan  mythology  the 
Sun  viewed  in  this  light  is  sometimes  represented  as 
divine,  yet  not  immortal ;  sometimes  as  living,  but 
sleeping ;  sometimes  as  a  mortal  beloved  by  a  goddess, 
yet  tainted  by  the  fate  of  humanity.  Thus,  "  Titho- 
nos,"  a  name  that  has  been  identified  with  the  Sanskrit 
u  didhyftnaA,"  a  brilliant,  expressed  originally  the  idea 
of  the  Sun  in  his  daily  or  yearly  character.  He  also, 
like  Endymion,  does  not  enjoy  the  full  immortality  of 
Zeus  and  Apollon.  Endymion  retains  his  youth,  but 
is  doomed  to  sleep.  Tithonos  is  made  immortal,  but 
as  Eos  forgot  to  ask  for  his  eternal  youth,  he  pines 
away  as  a  decrepit  old  man,  in  the  arms  of  his  ever 
youthful  wife,  who  loved  him  when  he  was  young,  and 

1  See  Pott,  Kuhn's  Zeitschrifi,  vol.  ii.  p.  109. 

2  See  Sonne,  "  On  Charis,"  in  Kuhn's  Zeitschrlft,  vol.  x.  p.  178. 


84  COMPAEATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

is  kind  to  him  in  his  old  age.  Other  traditions,  care- 
less about  contradictions,  or  ready  to  solve  them  some- 
times by  the  most  atrocious  expedients,  call  Tithonos 
the  son  of  Eos  and  Kephalos,  as  Endymion  was  the 
son  of  Protogeneia,  the  Dawn  ;  and  this  very  freedom 
in  handling  a  myth  seems  to  show,  that  at  first,  a 
Greek  knew  what  it  meant  if  Eos  was  said  to  leave 
every  morning  the  bed  of  Tithonos.  As  long  as  this 
expression  was  understood,  I  should  say  that  the  myth 
was  present;  it  was  passed  when  Tithonos  had  been 
changed  into  a  son  of  Laomedon,  a  brother  of  Pria- 
mos,  a  prince  of  Troy.  Then  the  saying,  that  Eos 
left  his  bed  in  the  morning,  became  mythical,  and  had 
none  but  a  conventional  or  traditional  meaning.  Then, 
as  Tithonos  was  a  prince  of  Troy,  his  son,  the  Ethio- 
pian Memnon,  had  to  take  part  in  the  Trojan  war. 
And  yet  how  strange !  —  even  then  the  old  myth 
seems  to  float  through  the  dim  memory  of  the  poet !  — 
for  when  Eos  weeps  for  her  son,  the  beautiful  Mem- 
non, her  tears  are  called  "morning-dew," — so  that 
the  past  may  be  said  to  have  been  still  half-present. 

As  we  have  mentioned  Kephalos  as  the  beloved  of 
Eos,  and  the  father  of  Tithonos,  we  may  add,  that 
Kephalos  also,  like  Tithonos  and  Endymion,  was  one 
of  the  many  names  of  the  Sun.  Kephalos,  however, 
was  the  rising  sun  —  the  head  of  light,  —  an  expression 
frequently  used  of  the  sun  in  different  mythologies. 
In  the  Veda,  where  the  sun  is  addressed  as  a  horse, 
the  head  of  th^  horse  is  an  expression  meaning  the 
risin'g  sun.  Inus,  the  poet  says  (Rv.  I.  163,  6),  "I 
have  known  through  my  mind  thyself  when  it  was 
still  far  —  thee,  the  bird  flying  up  from  below  the  sky ; 
I  saw  a  head  with  wings,  toiling  on  smooth  and  dust- 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  85 

less  paths."  The  Teutonic  nations  speak  of  the  sun 
as  the  eye  of  Wuotan,  as  Hesiod  speaks  of — 

HO.VTO.  [Slav  Albs  btjiOa.\nbs  Kai  TCO.VTO.  voijtras ; 

and  they  also  call  the  sun  the  face  of  their  god.1  In 
the  Veda,  again,  the  sun  is  called  (I.  115,  1)  "the 
face  of  the  gods,"  or  "  the  face  of  Aditi "  (I.  113, 
19)  ;  and  it  is  said  that  the  winds  obscure  the  eye  of 
the  sun  by  showers  of  rain  (V.  59,  5). 

A  similar  idea  led  the  Greeks  to  form  the  name  of 
Kephalos  ;  and  if  Kephalos  is  called  the  son  of  Herse 
—  the  Dew,  —  this  patronymic  meant  the  same  in 
mythological  language  that  we  should  express  by  the 
sun  rising  over  dewy  fields.  What  is  told  of  Kepha- 
los is,  that  he  was  the  husband  of  Prokris,  that  he 
loved  her,  and  that  they  vowed  to  be  faithful  to  one 
another.  But  Eos  also  loves  Kephalos ;  she  tells  her 
love,  and  Kephalos,  true  to  Prokris,  does  not  accept 
it.  Eos,  M'ho  knows  her  rival,  replies,  that  he  might 
remain  faithful  to  Prokris,  till  Prokris  had  broken  her 
vo\v.  Kephalos  accepts  the  challenge,  approaches  his 
wife  disguised  as  a  stranger,  and  gains  her  love.  Pro- 
kris, discovering  her  shame,  flies  to  Kreta.  Here 
Diana  gives  her  a  dog  and  a  spear,  that  never  miss 
their  aim,  and  Prokris  returns  to  Kephalos  disguised 
as  a  huntsman.  While  hunting  with  Kephalos,  she  is 
asked  by  him  to  give  him  the  dog  and  the  spear.  She 
promises  to  do  so  only  in  return  for  his  love,  and  when 
he  has  assented,  she  discloses  herself,  and  is  again 
accepted  by  Kephalos.  Yet  Prokris  fears  the  charms 
of  Eos ;  and  while  jealously  watching  her  husband, 
she  is  killed  by  him  unintentionally,  by  the  spear  that 
never  misses  its  aim. 

1  Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  p.  666. 


86  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

Before  we  can  explain  this  myth,  which,  however, 
is  told  with  many  variations  by  Greek  and  Latin  poets, 
we  must  dissect  it,  and  reduce  it  to  its  constituent 
elements. 

The  first  is  "  Kephalos  loves  Prokris."  Prokris  we 
must  explain  by  a  reference  to  Sanskrit,  where  "  prush  " 
and  "prish"  mean  to  sprinkle,  and  are  used  chiefly 
with  reference  to  rain-drops.  For  instance  (Rv.  I. 
168,  8)  :  "  The  lightnings  laugh  down  upon  the  earth, 
when  the  winds  shower  forth  the  rain." 

The  same  root  in  the  Teutonic  languages  has  taken 
the  sense  of  "  frost ;"  and  Bopp  identifies  "  prush " 
with  O.  H.  G.  "  frus,"  "  frigere."  In  Greek  we  must 
refer  to  the  same  root  TT/)O>£,  irpwKos,  a  dew-drop,  and 
also  "  Prfikris,"  the  dew.1  Tims,  the  wife  of  Kephalos 
is  only  a  repetition  of  Herse,  her  mother,  —  "  Herse," 
dew,  being  derived  from  Sanskrit  "  vrish,"2  to  sprinkle  ; 

1 1  see  no  reason  to  modify  this  etymology  of  "  Prokris."  "  Prish  "  in 
Sanskrit  means  to  sprinkle,  and  ''  prishita"  occurs  in  the  sense  of  shower, 
in  "  vidyut-stanayitnu-prishiteshu,"  "  during  lightning,  thunder,  and 
rain,"  Gobh.  3,  3, 15,  where  Professor  Roth  ingeniously,  but  without  ne- 
cessity, suspects  the  original  reading  to  have  been  "  prushita."  "  Prishat," 
fern.  "  prishati,"  means  sprinkled,  and  is  applied  to  a  speckled  deer,  a 
speckled  cow,  a  speckled  horse.  "Prishata,"  too,  has  the  same  meaning, 
but  is  likewise  used  in  the  sense  of  drops.  "Prush,"  a  cognate  root, 
means  in  Sanskrit  to  sprinkle,  and  from  it  we  have  "  prushva,"  the  rainy 
season,  and  "  prushva,"  a  drop,  but  more  particularly  a  frozen  drop,  or 
frost.  Now,  it  is  perfectly  true,  that  the  final  sh  of  "prish"  or  "prush" 
is  not  regularly  represented  in  Greek  by  a  guttural  consonant.  But  we 
find  that  in  Sanskrit  itself  the  lingual  sh  of  this  root  varies  with  the  pala- 
tal s,  for  instance,  in  "  pris-ni,"  speckled ;  and  Professor  Curtius  has  rightly 
traced  the  Greek  n-epx-vd*,  spotted,  back  to  the  same  root  as  the  Sanskrit 
"  pris-ni,"  and  has  clearly  established  for  irpo'£  and  wpoicas,  the  original 
meaning  of  a  speckled  deer.  From  the  same  root,  therefore,  not  only 
TrpuSf,  a  dew-drop,  but  npoie-pis  also  may  be  derived,  in  the  sense  of  dew  or 
hoar-frost,  the  derivative  syllable  being  the  same  as  in  vejS-pi'i,  or  U-piy, 
gen.  ios  or  iSos. 

2  This  derivation  of  ep<n),  dew,  from  the  Sanskrit  root  "vrish"  has  been 
questioned,  because  Sanskrit »  is  generally  represented  in  Greek  by  the 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  87 

"  Prokris,"  dew,  from  a  Sanskrit  root  "  prush,"  having 
the  same  sense.  The  first  part  of  our  myth,  therefore, 
means  simply,  "  the  Sun  kisses  the  Morning  Dew." 

The  second  saying  is  "  Eos  loves  Kephalos."  This 
requires  no  explanation  ;  it  is  the  old  story,  repeated 
a  hundred  times  in  Aryan  mythology,  "  The  Dawn 
loves  the  Sun." 

The  third  saying  was,  "  Prokris  is  faithless  ;  yet 
her  new  lover,  though  in  a  different  guise,  is  still  the 
same  Kephalos."  This  we  may  interpret  as  a  poetical 
expression  for  the  rays  of  the  sun  being  reflected  in 
various  colors  from  the  dew-drops,  —  so  that  Prokris 
may  be  said  to  be  kissed  by  many  lovers ;  yet  they 
are  all  the  same  Kephalos,  disguised,  but  at  last  recog- 
nized. 

The  last  saying  was,  "  Prokris  is  killed  by  Kepha- 
los," i.  e.  the  dew  is  absorbed  by  the  sun.  Prokris 
dies  for  her  love  to  Kephalos,  and  he  must  kill  her 
because  he  loves  her.  It  is  the  gradual  and  inevitable 
absorption  of  the  dew  by  the  glowing  rays  of  the  sun 
which  is  expressed,  with  so  much  truth,  by  the  uner- 
ring shaft  of  Kephalos  thrown  unintentionally  at  Pro- 
kris hidden  in  the  thicket  of  the  forest.1 

We  have  only  to  put  these  four  sayings  together, 
and  every  poet  will  at  once  tell  us  the  story  of  the 
love  and  jealousy  of  Kephalos,  Prokris,  and  Eos.  If 

digamma,  or  the  spiritus  lenis.  But  in  Greek  we  find  both  tpa-ti  and  tp<r>) 
a  chancre  of  frequent  occurrence,  though  difficult  to  explain.  In  the  same 
manner  the  G^eek  has  la-nap  and  to-nop,  from  the  root  "  vid,"  eo-ria  troni  a 
root  "vas";  and  the  AHic  peculiarity  of  aspirating  unaspirated  initial 
vowels  was  well  kno'-m  even  to  ancient  grammarians  (Curtius,  Grund- 
tiige,  p  617).  Forms  like  «e'p<rrj  and  depo-a  clearly  prove  the  former  pres 
ince  of  a  digamma  (Curtius,  Grundziiye,  p.  509). 

"La  rngiada 
Pugna  col  sole."  —Dante,  Purgcctorio,  i.  121. 


88  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

anything  was  wanted  to  eoi.f.rm  the  solar  nature  of 
Kephalos,  we  might  point  out  how  the  first  meeting 
of  Kephalos  and  Prokris  takes  place  on  Mount  Hy- 
mettos,  and  how  Kephalos  throws  himself  afterwards, 
in  despair,  into  the  sea,  from  the  Leukadian  mountains. 
Now,  the  whole  myth  belongs  to  Attika,  and  here  the 
sun  would  rise,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year, 
over  Mount  Hymettos  like  a  brilliant  head.  A  straight 
line  from  this,  the  most  eastern  point,  to  the  most 
western  headland  of  Greece,  carries  us  to  the  Leuka- 
dian promontory,  —  and  here  Kephalos  might  well  be 
said  to  have  drowned  his  sorrows  in  the  waves  of  the 
ocean. 

Another  magnificent  sunset  looms  in  the  myth  of  the 
death  of  Herakles.  His  twofold  character  as  a  god  and 
as  a  hero  is  acknowledged  even  by  Herodotos ;  and 
some  of  his  epithets  are  sufficient  to  indicate  his  solar 
character,  though,  perhaps,  no  name  has  been  made  tho 
vehicle  of  so  many  mythological  and  historical,  physical 
and  moral  stories,  as  that  of  Herakles.  Names  which 
he  shares  with  Apollo  and  Zeus  are  Aa<£v77</>opos,  'AAe£i- 
KO.KOS,  Mai/Tts,  Idaios,  'OAiyMrios,  Ilayyet/eTcap. 

Now,  in  his  last  journey,  Herakles  also,  like  Kepha- 
los, proceeds  from  east  to  west.  He  is  performing  his 
sacrifice  to  Zeus,  on  the  Kenason  promontory  of  Euboea, 
when  Deianeira  ("  dasya-nari  "=  "  dasa-patni ")  sends 
him  the  fatal  garment.  He  then  throws  Lichas  into 
the  sea,  who  is  transformed  into  the  Lichadian  islands. 
From  thence  Herakles  crosses  over  to  Trachys,  and 
then  to  Mount  Oeta,  where  his  pile  is  raised,  and  the 
hero  is  burnt,  rising  through  the  clouds  to  the  seat  of 
the  immortal  gods  —  himself  henceforth  immortal  and 
wedded  to  Hebe,  the  goddess  of  youth.  The  coat 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  89 

which  Deianeira  sends  to  the  solar  hero  is  an  expres- 
sion frequently  used  in  other  mythologies  ;  it  is  the  coat 
which  in  the  Veda,  "the  mothers  weave  for  their 
bright  son," — the  clouds  which  rise  from  the  waters  and 
surround  the  sun  like  a  dark  raiment.  Herakles  tries 
to  tear  it  off;  his  fierce  splendor  breaks  through  the 
thickening  gloom,  but  fiery  mists  embrace  him,  and 
are  mingled  with  the  parting  rays  of  the  sun,  and  the 
dying  hero  is  seen  through  the  scattered  clouds  of  the 
sky,  tearing  his  own  body  to  pieces,  till  at  last  his 
bright  form  is  consumed  in  a  general  conflagration,  his 
last-beloved  being  lole,  —  perhaps  the  violet-colored 
evening  clouds,  —  a  word  which,  as  it  reminds  us  also 
of  ID'S,  poison  (though  the  t  is  long),  may  perhaps  have 
originated  the  myth  of  a  poisoned  garment. 

In  these  legends  the  Greek  language  supplies  almost 
all  that  is  necessary  in  order  to  render  these  strange 
stories  intelligible  and  rational,  though  the  later  Greeks 
—  I  mean  Homer  and  Hesiod  —  had  certainly  in  most 
cases  no  suspicion  of  the  original  import  of  their  own 
traditions.  But  as  there  are  Greek  words  which  find 
no  explanation  in  Greek,  and  which,  without  a  refer- 
ence to  Sanskrit  and  the  other  cognate  dialects,  would 
have  forever  remained  to  the  philologist  mere  sounds 
with  a  conventional  meaning,  there  are  also  names  of 
gods  and  heroes  inexplicable  from  a  Greek  point  of 
view,  and  which  cannot  be  made  to  disclose  their  prim- 
itive character,  unless  confronted  with  contemporary 
witnesses  from  India,  Persia,  Italy,  or  Germany.  An- 
other myth  of  the  dawn  will  best  explain  this  :  — 

"  Ahan  "  in  Sanskrit  is  a  name  of  the  day,  and  is 
said  to  stand  for  "  dahan,"  like  "  asm,"  tear,  for 
"dasru,"  Greek  SaK/>v.  Whether  we  have  to  admit 


90  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

an  actual  loss  of  this  initial  d,  or  whether  the  d  is  to 
oe  considered  rather  as  a  secondaiy  letter,  by  which 
the  root  "  ah  "  was  individualized  to  "  dah,"  is  a  ques- 
tion which  does  not  concern  us  at  present.  In  San- 
skrit we  have  the  root  "  dah,"  which  means  to  burn, 
and  from  which  a  name  of  the  day  might  have  been 
formed  in  the  same  manner  as  "  dyu,"  day,  is  formed 
from  "  dyu,"  to  be  brilliant.  Nor  does  it  concern  us 
here,  whether  the  Gothic  "  daga,"  nom.  "  dag-s,"  day, 
is  the  same  word  or  not.  According  to  Grimm's  law, 
"daha,"  in  Sanskrit  should  in  Gothic  appear  as  "taga," 
and  not  as  "  daga."  However,  there  are  several  roots 
in  which  the  aspiration  aifects  either  the  first  or  the 
last  letter  or  both.  This  would  give  us  "  dhah  "  as  a 
secondary  type  of  "  dah,"  and  thus  remove  the  appa- 
rent irregularity  of  the  Gothic  "  daga."  1  Bopp  seems 
inclined  to  consider  "  daga  "  and  "  daha  "  identical  in 
origin.  Certain  it  is  that  the  same  root  from  which 
the  Teutonic  words  for  day  are  formed,  has  also  given 
rise  to  the  name  for  dawn.  In  German  we  say,  "  der 
Morgen  tagt ;  "  and  in  Old  English  day  was  "  dawe  ;  " 
while  to  dawn  was  in  Anglo-Saxon  "  dagian."  Now, 
in  the  Veda,  one  of  the  names  of  the  dawn  is  "AhanaV 
It  occurs  only  once  (Rv.  I.  123,  4) :  — 

"  Griham  griham  A  liana  yati  sJckha, 
l)\\-f'  dive  i'ulhi  nama  dadhana 
Sfsasanti  Dyotana  sasvat  a  agat 
A'gram  agram  ft  bha^ate  vasunam." 

"  Ahana  (the  dawn)  comes  near  to  every  house,  — 
sli  3  who  makes  every  day  to  be  known. 

"Dyotana  (the  dawn),  the   active  maiden,  comes 

1  This  change  of  aspiration  has  been  fully  illustrated,  and  well  explained 
by  Grassmann,  in  Kuhn's  Zeitschrift,  vol.  xii.  p.  110. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  91 

back  for  evermore,  —  she  enjoys  always  the  first  of  all 
goods." 

We  have  already  seen  the  Dawn  in  various  rela- 
tions to  the  Sun,  but  not  yet  as  the  beloved  of  the  Sun, 
flying  before  her  lover,  and  destroyed  by  his  embrace. 
This,  however,  was  a  very  familiar  expression  in  the 
old  mythological  language  of  the  Aryans.  The  Dawn 
has  died  in  the  arms  of  the  Sun,  or  the  Dawn  is  fly- 
ing before  the  Sun,  or  the  Sun  has  shattered  the  car 
of  the  Dawn,  were  expressions  meaning  simply,  the  sun 
has  risen,  the  dawn  is  gone.  Thus,  we  read  in  the  Rv. 
IV.  30,  in  a  hymn  celebrating  the  achievements  of  In- 
dra, the  chief  solar  deity  of  the  Veda :  — 

"  And  this  strong  and  manly  deed  also  thou  hast 
performed,  O  Indra,  that  thou  struckest  the  daughter 
of  Dyaus  (the  Dawn),  a  woman  difficult  to  vanquish. 

"  Yes,  even  the  daughter  of  Dyaus,  the  magnified, 
the  Dawn,  thou,  O  Indra,  a  great  hero,  hast  ground  to 
pieces. 

"  The  Dawn  rushed  off  from  her  crushed  car,  fear- 
ing that  Indra,  the  bull,  might  strike  her. 

"  This  her  car  lay  there  well  ground  to  pieces  ;  she 
went  far  away." 

In  this  case,  Indra  behaves  rather  unceremoniously 
to  the  daughter  of  the  sky ;  but,  in  other  places,  she  is 
loved  by  all  the  bright  gods  of  heaven,  not  excluding 
her  own  father.  The  Sun,  it  is  said  (Rv.  I.  115,  2), 
follows  her  from  behind,  as  a  man  follows  a  woman. 
"  She,  the  Dawn,  whose  cart  is  drawn  by  white  horses, 
is  earned  away  in  triumph  by  the  two  Asvins,"  as  the 
Leukippides  are  carried  off  by  the  Dioskuroi. 


92  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

If  now  we  translate,  or  rather  transliterate,  "  Da- 
liana  "  into  Greek,  Daphne  stands  before  us,  and  her 
whole  history  is  intelligible.  Daphne  is  young  and 
beautiful,  —  Apollo  loves  her,  —  she  flies  before  nim, 
and  dies  as  he  embraces  her  with  his  brilliant  rays. 
Or,  as  another  poet  of  the  Veda  (X.  189)  expresses  it, 
"  The  Dawn  comes  near  to  him,  —  she  expires  as  soon 
as  he  begins  to  breathe,  —  the  mighty  one  irradiates 
the  sky."  Any  one  who  has  eyes  to  see  and  a  heart  to 
feel  with  nature  like  the  poets  of  old,  may  still  see 
Dahne  and  Apollo,  —  the  dawn  rushing  and  trembling 
through  the  sky,  and  fading  away  at  the  sudden  ap- 
proach of  the  bright  sun.  Thus  even  in  so  modern  a 
poet  as  Swift,  the  old  poetry  of  nature  breaks  through 
when,  in  his  address  to  Lord  Harley  on  his  marriage, 
he  writes :  — 

"  So  the  bright  Empress  of  the  Mora 
Chose  for  her  spouse  a  mortal  born: 
The  Goddess  made  advances  first, 
Else  what  aspiring  hero  durst? 
Though  like  a  maiden  of  fifteen 
She  blushes  when  by  mortals  seen: 
Still  blushes,  and  with  haste  retires 
When  Sol  pursues  her  with  his  fires." 

The  metamorphosis  of  Daphne  into  a  laurel-tree  is  a 
continuation  of  the  myth  of  peculiarly  Greek  growth. 
Daphne,  in  Greek,  meant  no  longer  the  dawn,  but 
it  had  become  the  name  of  the  laurel.1  Hence  the 

i  Professor  Curtius  admits  my  explanation  of  the  myth  of  Daphne  as  the 
dawn,  but  he  says,  "  If  we  could  but  see  why  the  dawn  is  changed  into  a 
laurel !  "  I  have  explained  before  the  influence  of  homonymy  in  the  growth 
of  early  myths,  and  this  is  only  another  instance  of  this  influence.  The 
dawn  was  called  Sa^vy,  the  burning,  so  was  the  laurel,  as  wood  that  burns 
easily.  Afterward  the  two,  as  usual,  were  supposed  to  be  one,  or  to  have 
some  connection  with  each  other,  for  how,  the  people  would  say,  could  they 
have  the  same  name?  See  Etym.  M.  p.  250,  20,  Sa.vXn6y  e^a.»CTToV  fuAov; 

Hesych.  S*vXuoV  eV«avoTOi>  (-;\ov  Sa<j>vr,t  (1.  evKavvrov  $v\ov  U'pvyv,  Ahrens 

Dial.  Grate,  ii.  532).      Legerlotz,  in  Kuhn's   Zeitschrift,  vol.  vii.  p.  292, 
Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  Second  Series,  p.  602. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  93 

tree  Daphne  was  considered  sacred  to  the  lover  of 
Daphne,  the  dawn,  and  Daphne  herself  was  fabled  to 
have  been  changed  into  a  tree  when  praying  to  her 
mother  to  protect  her  from  the  violence  of  Apollo. 

Without  the  help  of  the  Veda,  the  name  of  Daphne 
and  the  legend  attached  to  her,  would  have  remained 
unintelligible,  for  the  later  Sanskrit  supplies  no  key  to 
this  name.  This  shows  the  value  of  the  Veda  for  the 
purpose  of  comparative  mythology,  a  science  which, 
without  the  Veda,  would  have  remained  mere  guess- 
work, without  fixed  principles  and  without  a  safe 
basis.1 

In  order  to  show  in  how  many  different  ways  the  same 
idea  may  be  expressed  mythologically,  I  have  confined 
myself  to  the  names  of  the  dawn.  The  dawn  is  really 
one  of  the  richest  sources  of  Aryan  mythology ;  and 
another  class  of  legends,  embodying  the  strife  between 
winter  and  summer,  the  return  of  spring,  the  revival  of 
nature,  is  in  most  languages  but  a  reflection  and  am- 
plification of  the  more  ancient  stories  telling  of  the  strife 
between  night  and  day,  the  return  of  the  morn,  the 
revival  of  the  whole  world.  The  stories,  again,  of  solar 
heroes  fighting  through  a  thunder-storm  against  the 
powers  of  darkness,  are  borrowed  from  the  same 
source ;  and  the  cows,  so  frequently  alluded  to  in  the 
Veda,  as  carried  off  by  Vritra  and  brought  back  by 
Indra,  are  in  reality  the  same  bright  cows  which  the 
Dawn  drives  out  every  morning  to  their  pasture 
ground ;  sometimes  the  clouds,  which,  from  their  heavy 
udders,  send  down  refreshing  and  fertilizing  rain  or 

1  For  another  development  of  the  same  word  "Ahana,"  leading  ulti- 
mately to  the  myth  of  Athene,  se«  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language, 
Second  Series,  p.  502. 


94  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

dew  upon  the  parched  eartli ;  sometimes  the  bright 
days  themselves,  that  seem  to  step  out  one  by  one  from 
the  dark  stable  of  the  night,  and  to  be  carried  off  from 
their  wide  pasture  by  the  dark  powers  of  the  West. 
There  is  no  sight  in  nature  more  elevating  than  the 
dawn  even  to  us,  whom  philosophy  would  wish  to  teach 
that  nil  admirari  is  the  highest  wisdom.  Yet  in  ancient 
times  the  power  of  admiring  was  the  greatest  blessing 
bestowed  on  mankind ;  and  when  could  man  have  ad- 
mired more  intensely,  when  could  his  heart  have  been 
more  gladdened  and  overpowered  with  joy,  than  at  the 

approach  of — 

"  the  Lord  of  light, 
Of  life,  of  love,  and  gladness !  " 

The  darkness  of  night  fills  the  human  heart  with 
despondency  and  awe,  and  a  feeling  of  fear  and  anguish 
sets  every  nerve  trembling.  There  is  man  like  a  forlorn 
child,  fixing  his  eye  with  breathless  anxiety  upon  the 
East,  the  womb  of  day,  where  the  light  of  the  world 
has  flamed  up  so  many  times  before.  As  the  father 
waits  the  birth  of  his  child,  so  the  poet  watches  the 
dark  heaving  Night  who  is  to  bring  forth  her  bright  son, 
the  sun  of  the  day.  The  doors  of  heaven  seem  slowly  to 
open,  and  what  are  called  the  bright  flocks  of  the  Dawn 
step  out  of  the  dark  stable,  returning  to  their  wonted 
pastures.  Who  has  not  seen  the  gradual  advance  of 
this  radiant  procession,  —  the  heaven  like  a  distant  sea 
tossing  its  golden  waves,  —  when  the  first  rays  shoot 
forth  like  brilliant  horses  racing  round  the  whole  course 
of  the  horizon,  —  when  the  clouds  begin  to  color  up, 
each  shedding  her  own  radiance  over  her  more  distant 
sisters!  Not  only  the  east,  but  the  west,  and  the 
south,  and  the  north,  the  whole  temple  of  heaven  ia 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  95 

illuminated,  and  the  pious  worshipper  lights  in  response 
his  own  small  light  on  the  altar  of  his  hearth,  and  stam- 
mers words  which  express  but  faintly  the  joy  that  is  in 
nature  and  in  his  own  throbbing  heart :  — 

*'  Rise  !  Our  life,  our  spirit  has  come  back  !  the  dark- 
ness is  gone,  the  light  approaches  !  " 

If  the  people  of  antiquity  called  these  eternai  lights 
of  heaven  their  gods,  their  bright  ones  ("  deva  "),  the 
Dawn  was  the  first-born  among  all  the  gods,  —  Proto- 
geneia,  — dearest  to  man,  and  always  young  and  fresh. 
But  if  not  raised  to  an  immortal  state,  if  only  admired 
as  a  kind  being,  awakening  every  morning  the  children 
of  man,  her  life  would  seem  to  be  short.  She  soon 
fades  away,  and  dies  when  the  fountain-head  of  light 
rises  in  naked  splendor,  and  sends  his  first  swift  glance 
through  the  vault  of  heaven.  We  cannot  realize  thai 
sentiment  with  which  the  eye  of  antiquity  dwelt  on 
these  sights  of  nature.  To  us  all  is  law,  order,  neces- 
sity. We  calculate  the  refractory  power  of  the  atmos- 
phere, we  measure  the  possible  length  of  the  dawn  in 
every  climate,  and  the  rising  of  the  sun  is  to  us  nc 
greater  surprise  than  the  birth  of  a  child.  But  if  we 
could  believe  again,  that  there  was  in  the  sun  a  being 
like  our  own,  that  in  the  dawn  there  was  a  soul  open 
to  human  sympathy,  —  if  we  could  bring  ourselves  to 
look  for  a  moment  upon  these  powers  as  personal,  free, 
and  adorable,  how  different  would  be  our  feelings  at 
the  blush  of  day  !  That  Titanic  assurance  with  which 
we  say,  the  sun  must  rise,  was  unknown  to  the  early 
worshippers  of  nature,  or  if  they  also  began  to  feel  the 
regularity  with  which  the  sun  and  the  other  stars  per- 
form their  daily  labor,  they  still  thought  of  free  beings 
kept  in  temporary  servitude,  chained  for  a  time,  and 


96  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

bound  to  obey  a  higher  will,  but  sure  to  rise,  like 
Herakles,  to  a  higher  glory  at  the  end  of  their  labors. 
It  seems  to  us  childish  when  we  read  in  the  Veda  such 
expressions  as,  "  Will  the  Sun  rise  ?  "  "  Will  our  old 
friend,  the  Dawn,  come  back  again  ?  "  "  Will  tue  pow- 
ers of  darkness  be  conquered  by  the  God  of  light  ?  " 
And  when  the  Sun  rose,  they  wondered  how,  but  just 
born,  he  was  so  mighty,  and  strangled,  as  it  were,  in 
his  cradle,  the  serpents  of  the  night.  They  asked  how 
he  could  walk  along  the  sky  ?  why  there  was  no  dust 
on  his  road  ?  why  he  did  not  fall  backward  ?  But  at 
last  they  greeted  him  like  the  poet  of  our  own  time, — 

"  Hail,  orient  Conqueror  of  gloomy  Night !  " 

and  the  human  eye  felt  that  it  could  not  bear  the  bril- 
liant majesty  of  him  whom  they  call  "  the  Life,  the 
Breath,  the  brilliant  Lord  and  Father." 

Thus  sunrise  was  the  revelation  of  nature,  awaken- 
ing in  the  human  mind  that  feeling  of  dependence,  of 
helplessness,  of  hope,  of  joy  and  faith  in  higher  pow- 
ers, which  is  the  source  of  all  wisdom,  the  spring  of  all 
religion.  But  if  sunrise  inspired  the  first  prayers, 
called  forth  the  first  sacrificial  flames,  sunset  was  the 
other  time  when,  again,  the  heart  of  man  would  trem- 
ble, and  his  mind  be  filled  with  awful  thoughts.  The 
shadows  of  night  approach,  the  irresistible  power  of 
sleep  grasps  man  in  the  midst  of  his  pleasures,  his 
friends  depart,  and  in  his  loneliness  his  thoughts  turn 
avt\\n  to  higher  powers.  When  the  day  departs,  the 
poet  bewails  the  untimely  death  of  his  bright  friend, 
nay,  he  sees  in  his  short  career  the  likeness  of  his  own 
life.  Perhaps,  when  he  has  fallen  asleep,  his  sun  may 
never  rise  again,  and  thus  the  place  to  which  the  set- 
ting sun  withdraws  in  the  far  West  rises  before  his 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  97 

mind  as  the  abode  where  he  himself  would  go  after 
death,  where  "  his  fathers  went  before  him,"  and  where 
all  the  wise  and  the  pious  rejoice  in  a  "  new  life  with 
Yama  and  Varuwa."  Or  he  might  look  upon  the  sun, 
not  as  a  short-lived  hero,  but  as  young,  unchanging, 
and  always  the  same,  while  generations  after  genera- 
tions of  mortal  men  were  passing  away.  And  hence, 
by  the  mere  force  of  contrast,  the  first  intimation  of 
beings  which  do  not  wither  and  decay  —  of  immortals, 
of  immortality  !  Then  the  poet  would  implore  the 
immortal  sun  to  come  again,  to  vouchsafe  to  the  sleeper 
a  new  morning.  The  god  of  day  would  become  the 
god  of  time,  of  life  and  death.  Again,  the  evening 
twilight,  the  sister  of  the  dawn,  repeating,  though  with 
a  more  sombre  light,  the  wonders  of  the  morning,  how 
many  feelings  must  it  have  roused  in  the  musing  poet 
—  how  many  poems  must  it  have  elicited  in  the  living 
language  of  ancient  times !  Was  it  the  Dawn  that 

O          «T> 

came  again  to  give  a  last  embrace  to  him  who  had 
parted  from  her  in  the  morning  ?  Was  she  the  im- 
mortal, the  always  returning  goddess,  and  he  the  mor- 
tal, the  daily  dying  sun  ?  Or  was  she  the  mortal, 
bidding  a  last  farewell  to  her  immortal  lover,  burnt,  as 
it  were,  on  the  same  pile  which  would  consume  her, 
while  he  would  rise  to  the  seat  of  the  gods  ? 

Let  us  express  these  simple  scenes  in  ancient  lan- 
guage, and  we  shall  find  ourselves  surrounded  on  every 
side  by  mythology  full  of  contradictions  and  incongru- 
ities, the  same  being  represented  as  mortal  or  immortal, 
as  man  or  woman,  as  the  poetical  eye  of  man  shifts  its 
,»oint  of  view,  and  gives  its  own  color  to  the  mysterious 
play  of  nature. 

One  of  the  myths  of  the  Veda  which  expresses  this 


98  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

correlation  of  the  Dawn  and  the  Sun,  this  love  between 
the  immortal  and  the  mortal,  and  the  identity  of  the 
Morning  Dawn  and  the  Evening  Twilight,  is  the  story 
of  Urvasi  and  Pururavas.  The  two  names  "  Urvasi  " 
and  "  Pururavas,"  are  to  the  Hindu  mere  proper  names, 
and  even  in  the  Veda  their  original  meaning  has  almost 
entirely  faded  away.  There  is  a  dialogue  in  the  Rig- 
veda  between  Urvasi  and  Pururavas,  where  both  ap- 
pear personified  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  play  of 
"  Kalidasa."  The  first  point,  therefore,  which  we  have 
to  prove  is  that  "  Urvasi  "  was  originally  an  appella- 
tion, and  meant  dawn. 

The  etymology  of  "  Urvasi  "  is  difficult.  It  cannot 
be  derived  from  "  urva  "  by  means  of  the  suffix  "  sa,1 " 
because  there  is  no  such  word  as  "  urva,"  and  because 
derivatives  in  "  sa,"  like  "  romasa,"  "  yuvasa,"  etc., 
have  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable.2  I  therefore  accept 
the  common  Indian  explanation  by  which  this  name  is 
derived  from  "  uru,"  wide  (eupu),  and  a  root  "  as,"  to 
pervade,  and  thus  compare  "  uru-asi"  with  another 
frequent  epithet  of  the  Dawn,  "  uru&i,"  the  feminine  of 
"  uru-a&,"  far-going.  It  was  certainly  one  of  the  most 
sticking  features,  and  one  by  which  the  Dawn  was  dis- 
tinguished from  all  the  other  dwellers  in  the  heavens, 
that  she  occupies  the  wide  expanse  of  the  sky,  and  that 
her  horses  ride,  as  it  were,  with  the  swiftness  of  thought 
round  the  whole  horizon.  Hence  we  find  that  names  be- 
ginning with  "uru"  in  Sanskrit,  and  with  evpv  in  Greek, 
are  almost  invariably  old  mythological  names  of  the 
Dawn  or  the  Twilight.  The  earth  also,  it  is  true, 

1  Panini,  V.  2, 100. 

2  Other  explanations  of  "  Urva«i "  may  be  neen  in  Professor  Roth's  edition 
of  the  Nirukta,  and  in  the  Sanskrit  Dictionary  published  by  him  and  Pro- 
fessor Boehtlingk. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  9$ 

claims  this  epithet,  but  in  different  combinations  from 
those  which  apply  to  the  bright  goddess.  Names  of 
the  Dawn  are  Euryphuessa,  the  mother  of  Helios  ; 
Eurykyde  or  Eurypyle,  the  daughter  of  Endymion  ; 
Eurymede,  the  wife  of  Glaukos  ;  Eurynome,  the  mother 
of  the  Cliarites  ;  and  Eurydike,  the  wile  of  Orpheus, 
whose  character  as  an  ancient  god  will  be  discussed 
hereafter.  In  the  Veda  the  name  of  Ushas  or  Eos  is 
hardly  ever  mentioned  without  some  allusion  to  her 
far  and  wide-spreading  splendor ;  such  as  "  urviyS, 
vibhati,"  she  shines  wide  ;  "  urviya  vi&kkshe,"  looking 
far  and  wide ;  "  variyasi,"  the  widest1,  whereas  the  light 
of  the  Sun  is  not  represented  as  wide-stretching,  but 
rather  as  far-darting. 

But  there  are  other  indications  beside  the  mere  name 
of  Urvasi,  which  lead  ns  to  suppose  that  she  was  orig- 
inally the  goddess  of  the  dawn.  "  Vasishdia,"  though 
best  known  as  the  name  of  one  of  the  chief  poets  of 
the  Veda,  is  the  superlative  of  "  vasu,"  bright ;  and  as 
such  also  a  name  of  the  Sun.  Thus  it  happens  that 
expressions  which  apply  properly  to  the  sun  only, 
were  transferred  to  the  ancient  poet.  He  is  called  the 
son  of  Mitra  and  Varuwa,  night  and  day,  an  expression 
which  has  a  meaning  only  with  regard  to  Vasish£ha, 
the  sun  ;  and  as  the  sun  is  frequently  called  the  off- 

l  The  name  which  approaches  nearest  to  "  Urvasi  "  in  Greek  might  seem 
tc  be  "Europe,"  because  the  palatal  s  is  occasionally  represented  by  a 
Greek  IT,  :is  a.sva.='imro<;.  The  only  difficulty  is  the  long  <a  in  Greek;  other- 
wise Europe,  carried  away  by  the  white  bull  ("  vrishan,"  man,  bull,  stal- 
lion, in  the  Veda  a  frequent  appellation  of  the  sun,  and  "  sveta."  white, 
applied  to  the  same  deity),  earned  away  on  his  back  (the  sun  being  fre- 
quently represented  as  behind  or  below  the  dawn,  see  p.  U2  and  the  myth  of 
Eurydike  on  p.  127);  again  carried  to  a  distant  cave  (the  gloaming  of  the 
evening);  and  mother  of  Apollo,  the  god  of  daylight,  or  of  Minos  (Manu, 
a  mortal  Zeus),  —  all  this  would  well  agree  with  the  goddess  of  the  dawn. 


100  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

spring  of  the  dawn,  Vasishdia,  the  poet,  is  said  to  owe 
his  birth  to  Urvasi  (Rv.  VII.  33,  11).  The  pecul- 
iarity of  his  birth  reminds  us  strongly  of  the  birth  of 
Aphrodite,  as  told  by  Hesiod. 

Again,  we  find  that  in  the  few  passages  where  the 
name  of  Urvasi  occurs  in  the  Rig-veda,  the  same  attri- 
butes and  actions  are  ascribed  to  her  which  usually  be- 
long to  Ushas,  the  Dawn. 

It  is  frequently  said  of  Ushas,  that  she  prolongs  the 
life  of  man,  and  the  same  is  said  of  Urvasi  (V.  41,  19 ; 
X.  95,  10).  In  one  passage  (Rv.  IV.  2,  18)  Urvasi  is 
even  used  as  a  plural,  in  the  sense  of  many  dawns  or 
days  increasing  the  life  of  man,  which  shows  that  the 
appellative  power  of  the  word  was  not  yet  quite  for- 
gotten. Again,  she  is  called  "  antarikshapra,"  filling 
the  air,  a  usual  epithet  of  the  sun,  '•  brihaddiva,"  with 
mighty  splendor,  all  indicating  the  bright  presence  of 
the  dawn.  However,  the  best  proof  that  "  Urvasi " 
was  the  dawn  is  the  legend  told  of  her  and  of  her 
love  to  Pururavas,  a  story  that  is  true  only  of  the  Sun 
and  the  Dawn.  That  "  Pururavas  "  is  an  appropriate 
name  of  a  solar  hero  requires  hardly  any  proof.  "  Puru- 
ravas "  meant  the  same  as  TroXuSev*?/?,  endowed  with 
much  light ;  for  though  "  rava  "  is  generally  used  of 
sound,  yet  the  root  "  ru,"  which  means  originally  to 
cry,  is  also  applied  to  color,1  in  the  sense  of  a  loud  or 
crying  color,  i.  e.  red  (cf.  ruler,  rufus,  Lith.  "  rauda," 

i  Thus  it  is  said  (Rv.  VI. 3,6)  the  fire  cries  with  light,  "sofcisha  rarapiti;" 
the  two  Spartan  Charites  are  called  KX,,Td  (icArjTa,  indutn)  and  Qaewa,  f.  t. 
Clara,  clear  shining  (see  Sonne,  in  Kuhn's  Zeitschrift,  vol.  x.  p.  363). 
In  the  Veda  the  rising  sun  is  said  to  cry  like  a  new-born  child  (Rv.  IX.  74? 
1).  Professor  Kuhn  himself  has  evidently  misunderstood  my  argument.  I 
do  not  derive  "  ravas  "  from  "ran,"  but  I  only  quote  "rap"  as  illustrifc 
ing  the  close  connection  between  loudness  of  sound  and  brightness  of 
light  See  also  Justi,  Orient  und  Occident,  vol.  ii.  p.  69. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  101 

O.  H.  G.  "rot,"  "rudhira,"  e>#pos;  also  Sanskrit 
"  ravi,"  sun).  Besides,  Pururavas  calls  himself 
"  Vasishdia,"  which,  as  we  know,  is  a  name  of  the 
Sun  ;  and  if  he  is  called  "  Aida,"  the  son  of  "  Ida," 
the  same  name  is  elsewhere  (Rv.  III.  29,  3)  given  to 
"  Agni,''  the  fire. 

Now  the  story,  in  its  most  ancient  form,  is  found  in 
the  Brahmana  of  the  Ya^ur-veda.  There  we  read  :  — 

"  Urvasi,  a  kind  of  fairy,  fell  in  love  with  Pururavas, 
the  son  of  Irfa,  and  when  she  met  him,  she  said : 
'  Embrace  me  three  times  a  day,  but  never  against 
my  will,  and  let  me  never  see  you  without  your  royal 
garments,  for  this  is  the  manner  of  women.'  In  this 
manner  she  lived  with  him  a  long  time,  and  she  was 
with  child.  Then  her  former  friends,  the  Gandhar- 
vas,  said  :  '  This  Urvasi  has  now  dwelt  a  long  time 
among  mortals  :  let  us  see  that  she  come  back.'  Now, 

O  '  ' 

there  was  a  ewe,  with  two  lambs,  tied  to  the  couch  of 
Urvasi  and  Pururavas,  and  the  Gandharvas  stole  one 
of  them.  Urvasi  said  :  '  They  take  away  my  darling, 
as  if  I  lived  in  a  land  where  there  is  no  hero  and  no 
man.'  They  stole  the  second,  and  she  upbraided  her 
husband  again.  Then  Pururavas  looked  and  said  : 
'  How  can  that  be  a  land  without  heroes  or  men  where 
I  am  ? '  And  naktd,  he  sprang  up ;  he  thought  it  too 
long  to  put  on  his  dress.  Then  the  Gandharvas  sent  a 
flash  of  lightning,  and  Urvasi  saw  her  husband  naked 
as  by  daylight.  Then  she  vanished  ;  '  I  come  back,' 
she  said  —  and  went.  Then  he  bewailed  his  vanished 
love  in  bitter  grief ;  and  went  near  Kurukshetra. 
There  is  a  lake  there,  called  "  AnyataAplaksha,"  full 
of  lotus  flowers,  and  while  the  king  walked  along  its 
border,  the  fairies  were  playing  there  in  the  water,  in 


102  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

the  shape  of  birds.  And  Urvasi  discovered  him,  and 
said :  — 

"  '  That  is  the  man  with  whom  I  dwelt  so  long.' 
Then  her  friends  said :  '  Let  us  appear  to  him.'  She 
agreed,  and  they  appeared  before  him.  Then  the  king 
recognized  her  and  said :  — 

"  '  Lo !  my  wife  !  stay,  thou  cruel  in  mind !  let  us 
now  exchange  some  words  !  Our  secrets,  if  they  are 
not  told  now,  will  not  bring  us  luck  on  any  later  day.' 

"  She  replied  :  '  What  shall  I  do  with  thy  speech  ? 
I  am  gone  like  the  first  of  the  dawns.  Pururavas,  go 
home  again  !  I  am  hard  to  be  caught,  like  the  wind.' 

"  He  said,  in  despair :  '  Then  may  thy  former  friend 
now  fall  down,  never  to  rise  again  ;  may  he  go  far,  far 
away !  May  he  lie  down  on  the  threshold  of  death, 
and  may  rabid  wolves  there  devour  him  ! ' 

"  She  replied :  '  Pururavas,  do  not  die  !  do  not  fall 
down !  let  not  evil  wolves  devour  thee !  there  is  no 
friendship  with  women,  their  hearts  are  the  hearts  of 
wolves.  When  I  walked  among  mortals  under  a  clif- 

O 

f'erent  form  —  when  I  dwelt  with  thee,  four  nights  of 
the  autumn,  I  ate  once  a  day  a  small  piece  of  butter  — 
and  even  now  I  feel  pleasure  from  it.' 

"  Thus,  at  last,  her  heart  melted,  and  she  said : 
'  Come  to  me  the  last  night  of  the  year,  and  thou  shalt 
be  with  me  for  one  night,  and  a  son  will  be  born  to 
thee.'  He  went  the  last  night  of  the  year  to  the 
golden  seats,  and  while  he  was  alone,  he  was  told  to 
go  up,  and  then  they  sent  Urvast  to  him.  Then  she 
saii:  'The  Gandharvas  will  to-morrow  grant  thee  a 
wish  ;  choose! '  He  said:  '  Choose  thou  for  me.'  She 
replied  :  '  Say  to  them,  let  me  be  one  of  you.'  Early 
the  next  morn,  the  Gandharvas  gave  him  his  choice  : 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  103 

but  when  he  said  '  Let  me  be  one  of  you,'  they  said : 
'  That  kind  of  sacred  fire  is  not  yet  known  among  men, 
by  which  lie  could  perform  a  sacrifice,  and  become  one 
of  ourselves.'  They  then  initiated  Pururavas  in  the 
mysteries  of  a  certain  sacrifice,  and  when  he  had  per- 
formed it,  he  became  himself  one  of  the  Gandharvas." 
This  is  the  simple  story,  told  in  the  Brahmarm,  and 
it  is  told  there  in  order  to  show  the  importance  of  a 
peculiar  rite,  the  rite  of  kindling  the  fire  by  friction, 
whicn  is  represented  as  the  one  by  which  Pururavas 
obtained  immortality.1  The  verses  quoted  in  the  story 
are  taken  from  the  Rig-veda,  where  we  find,  in  the 
last  book,  together  with  many  strange  relics  of  popular 
poetry,  a  dialogue  between  the  two  celestial  lovers. 
It  consists  of  seventeen  verses,  while  the  author  of  the 
Brahmawa  knew  only  fifteen.  In  one  of  the  verses 
which  he  quotes,  Urvasi  says,  "  I  am  gone  forever, 
like  the  first  of  the  dawns,"  which  shows  a  strange 
glimmering  of  the  old  myth  in  the  mind  of  the  poet, 
and  reminds  us  of  the  tears  which  the  mother  of  Mem- 
non  shed  over  the  corpse  of  her  son,  and  which  even 
by  later  poets  are  called  morning  dew.  Again,  in  the 
fourth  verse,  Urvasi  addressing  herself,  says  :  "  This 
person  (that  is  to  say  I),  when  she  was  wedded  to 
him,  O  Dawn !  she  went  to  his  house,  and  was  em- 
braced by  him  day  and  night."  Again,  she  tells  Puru- 
ravas that  he  was  created  by  the  gods  in  order  to  slay 
the  powers  of  darkness  ("  dasyuhatyaya"),  a  task  in- 
variably ascribed  to  Indra  and  other  solar  beings. 

1  A  most  interesting  and  ingenious  explanation  of  this  ceremony  is  given 
by  Professor  Kuhn,  in  his  Essay,  Die  Hernbknnft,  dt-s  Feuers,  p.  79.  The 
application  of  that  ceremony  to  the  old  myth  of  Urvasi  and  Puriiiavas  be- 
longs clearly  to  a  later  age:  it  is  an  after-thought  that  could  only  arise  with 
people  who  wished  to  find  a  symbolical  significance  in  every  act  of  their 
traditional  ritual. 


104  COlrfPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

Even  the  names  of  the  companions  of  Urvasi  point  to 
the  dawn,  and  Pururavas  says  :  — 

"  When  I,  the  mortal,  threw  my  arms  around  those 
flighty  immortals,  they  trembled  away  from  me  like  a 
trembling  doe,  like  horses  that  kick  against  the  cart." 

No  goddess  is  so  frequently  called  the  friend  of  man 
as  the  Dawn.  "  She  goes  to  every  house  "  (I.  123, 
4)  ;  "  she  thinks  of  the  dwelling  of  man "  (I.  123, 
1)  ;  "  she  does  not  despise  the  small  or  the  great "  (I. 
124,  6)  ;  "  she  brings  wealth  "  (I.  48,  1) ;  "  she  is 
always  the  same,  immortal,  divine  "  (I.  124,  4;  1. 123, 
8)  ;  "  she  does  not  grow  old  "  (I.  113,  15)  ;  "  she  is 
the  young  goddess,  but  she  makes  man  grow  old  "  (I. 
92,  11).  Thus  Pururavas  called  Urvasi  "the  im- 
mortal among  the  mortals  ;  "  and,  in  his  last  verse,  he 
addressed  his  beloved  in  the  following  words  :  — 

O 

"  I,  the  brightest  Sun,  I  hold  Urvasi,  her  who  fills 
the  air  (with  light),  who  spreads  the  sky.  May  the 
blessing  of  thy  kind  deed  be  upon  thee  !  Come  back, 
the  heart  burns  me." 

Then  the  poet  says  :  — 

"Thus  the  gods  spake  to  thee,  O  son  of  Idsi;  in 
order  that  thou,  bound  to  death,  mayest  grow  to  be 
this  (immortal),  thy  race  should  worship  the  gods  with 
oblations  !  Then  thou  also  wilt  rejoice  in  heaven." 

We  must  certainly  admit,  that  even  in  the  Veda, 
the  poets  were  as  ignorant  of  the  original  meaning  r>f 
Urvasi  and  Pururavas  as  Homer  was  of  Tithoncs,  if 
not  of  Eos.  To  them  they  were  heroes,  indefinite  be- 
jngs,  men  yet  not  men,  gods  yet  not  gods.  But  to  us, 
though  placed  at  a  much  greater  distance,  they  disclose 
their  true  meaning.  As  Wordsworth  says :  — 

"  Not  unrejoiced,  I  see  thee  climb  the  sky 
In  naked  splendor,  clear  from  mist  and  haze  **  — 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  105 

Antiquity  spoke  of  the  naked  Sun,  and  of  the  chaste 
Dawn  hiding  her  face  when  she  had  seen  her  husband. 
Yet  she  says  she  will  come  again.  And  after  the  Sim 
has  travelled  through  the  world  in  search  of  his  be- 

O 

loved,  when  becomes  to  the  threshold  of  death,  and  ?a 
going  to  end  his  solitary  life,  she  appears  again  in  the 
gloaming,  the  same  as  the  dawn, —  as  Eos  in  Homer 
begins  and  ends  the  day,  — and  she  carries  him  away 
to  the  golden  seats  of  the  immortals.1 

I  have  selected  this  myth  chiefly  in  order  to  show 
how  ancient  poetry  is  only  the  faint  echo  of  ancient 
language,  and  how  it  was  the  simple  story  of  nature 
which  inspired  the  early  poet,  and  held  before  his  mind 
that  deep  mirror  in  which  he  might  see  reflected  the 
passions  of  his  own  soul.  For  the  heart  of  man,  as 
long  as  it  knows  but,  its  own  bitterness,  is  silent  and 
sullen.  It  does  not  tell  its  love  and  its  loss.  There 
may  be  a  mute  poetry  in  solitary  grief,  but  "  Mnemos- 
yne," the  musing  goddess  of  recollection,  is  not  a 
muse  herself,  though  she  is  the  mother  of  the  Muses. 
It  is  the  sympathy  with  the  grief  of  others  which  first 
gives  utterance  to  the  poet's  grief,  and  opens  the  lips  of 
a  silent  despair.  And  if  his  pain  was  too  deep  and 
too  sacred,  if  he  could  not  compare  it  to  the  suffering 
of  any  other  human  heart,  the  ancient  poet  had  still 
the  heart  of  nature  to  commune  with,  and  in  her  silent 
suffering  he  saw  a  noble  likeness  of  what  he  felt  and 

O 

suffered  within  himself.  When,  after  a  dark  night, 
the  light  of  the  day  returned,  he  thought  of  his  own 
light  that  would  never  rise  again.  When  he  saw  the 

1    Od.  V.  390.    dAX'  ore  JT)  rpirOv  )?MaP  euwAdicojxo?  Te'Aecr'  'H<i?.      For  different 

explanations  of  this  and  similar  verses,  see  Volcker,  ijbtr  komeritche  Geo- 
graphic  und  Weltkundt,  Hannover,  1830,  p.  31. 


106  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

Sun  kissing  the  Dawn,  he  dreamt  of  days  and  joys 
gone  forever.  And  when  the  Dawn  trembled,  and 
grew  pale,  and  departed,  and  when  the  Sun  seemed  to 
look  for  her,  and  to  lose  her  the  more  his  brilliant  eye 
sought  her.  an  image  would  rise  in  his  mind,  and  lie 
would  remember  his  own  fate  and  yet  forget  it,  while 
tellino1  in  measured  words  the  love  and  loss  of  the  Sun. 

~ 

Such  was  the  origin  of  poetry.  Nor  was  the  evening 
without  its  charms.  And  when,  at  the  end  of  a  dreary 
day,  the  Sun  seemed  to  die  away  in  the  far  West,  still 
looking  for  his  Eastern  bride,  and  suddenly  the  heavens 
opened,  and  the  glorious  image  of  the  Dawn  rose  again, 
her  beauty  deepened  by  a  gloaming  sadness  —  would 
not  the  poet  gaze  till  the  last  ray  had  vanished,  and 
would  not  the  last  vanishing  ray  linger  in  his  heart, 
and  kindle  there  a  hope  of  another  life,  where  he  would 
find  again  what  he  had  loved  and  lost  on  earth  ? 

"  There  is  a  radiant,  though  a  short-lived  flame, 

That  burns  i'or  poets  in  the  dawning  east; 
And  oft  my  soul  has  kindled  at  the  same, 
When  the  captivity  of  sleep  had  ceased." 

There  is  much  suffering  in  nature  to  those  who  have 
eyes  for  silent  grief,  and  it  is  this  tragedy  —  the  tragedy 
of  nature  —  which  is  the  life-spring  of  all  the  tragedies 
of  the  ancient  world.  The  idea  of  a  young  hero, 
whether  he  is  called  "  Baldr,"  or  "  Sigurd."  or 
"Sifrit,"  or  "Achilles,"  or  "  Meleager,"  or  "  Kepha- 
los,"  dying  in  the  fullness  of  youth,  a  story  so  fre- 
quently told,  localized,  and  individualized,  was  first 
suggested  by  the  Sun,  dying  in  all  his  youthful  vigor, 
either  at  the  end  of  a  day,  conquered  by  the  powers 
of  darkness,  or  at  the  end  of  the  sunny  season,  stung 
by  the  thorn  of  Winter.  Again,  that  fatal  spell  by 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  107 

which  these  sunny  heroes  must  leave  their  first  love, 
become  unfaithful  to  her  or  she  to  them,  was  borrowed 
from  nature.  The  fate  of  these  solar  heroes  was  inevi- 
table, and  it  was  their  lot  to  die  by  the  hand  or  by  the 
unwilling  treachery  of  their  nearest  friends  or  relatives. 
The  Sun  forsakes  the  Dawn,  and  dies  at  the  end  of  the 
day  according  to  an  inexorable  fate,  and  bewailed  oy 
the  whole  of  nature.  Or  the  Sun  is  the  Sun  of  Spring, 
who  woos  the  Earth,  and  then  forsakes  his  bride  and 
grows  cold,  and  is  killed  at  last  by  the  thorn  of  Winter. 
It  is  an  old  story,  but  it  is  forever  new  in  the  mythol- 
ogy and  the  legends  of  the  ancient  world.  Thus 

O»/  O 

Baldr,  in  the  Scandinavian  "  Edda,"  the  divine  proto- 
type of  Sigurd  and  Sifrit,  is  beloved  by  the  whole  world. 
Gods  and  men,  the  whole  of  nature,  all  that  grows  and 
lives,  had  sworn  to  his  mother  not  to  hurt  the  bright 
hero.  The  mistletoe  alone,  that  does  not  grow  on  the 
earth,  but  on  trees,  had  been  forgotten,  and  with  it 
Baldr  is  killed  at  the  winter  solstice  :  — 

"  So  on  the  floor  lay  Balder,  dead;  and  round 
Lay  thickly  strewn,  swords,  axes,  darts,  and  spears, 
Which  all  the  gods  in  sport  had  idly  thrown 
At  Balder,  whom  no  weapon  pierced  or  clove : 
But  in  his  breast  stood  fixt  the  fatal  bough 
Of  mistletoe,  which  Lok,  the  accuser,  gave 
To  Hoder,  and  unwitting  Hoder  threw: 
'Gainst  that  alone  had  Balder's  life  no  charm." 

Thus  Isfendiyar,  in  the  Persian  epic,  cannot  be 
wounded  by  any  weapon,  yet  it  is  his  fate  to  be  killed 
by  a  thorn,  which,  as  an  arrow,  is  thrown  into  his  eye 
by  Rustem.  Rustem,  again,  can  only  be  killed  by  his 
brother  ;  Herakles,  by  the  mistaken  kindness  of  his 
wife  ;  Sifrit,  by  the  anxious  solicitude  of  Kriemhilt,  or 
by  the  jealousy  of  Brunhilt,  whom  he  had  forsaken. 
He  is  vulnerable  in  one  spot  only,  like  AcluTes,  and  it 


108  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

is  there  where  Hagene  (the  thorn)  strikes  him.  All 
these  are  fragments  of  solar  myths.  The  whole  of 
nature  was  divided  into  two  realms  —  the  one  dark, 
cold,  wintry,  and  deathlike,  the  other  bright,  warm, 
vernal,  and  full  of  life.  Sigurd,  as  the  solar  hero  is 
called  in  the  "  Edda,"  the  descendant  of  Odin,  slays 
the  serpent  Fafhir,  and  conquers  the  treasure  on  which 
Andvari,  the  dwarf,  had  pronounced  his  curse.  This 
is  the  treasure  of  the  Niflungs  or  Nibelungs,  the  treas- 
ure of  the  earth,  which  the  nebulous  powers  of  winter 
and  darkness  had  carried  away  like  robbers.  The  ver- 
nal sun  wins  it  back,  and  like  Demeter,  rich  in  the 
possession  of  her  restored  daughter,  the  earth  becomes 
for  a  time  rich  with  all  the  treasures  of  spring.1  He 
then,  according  to  the  "  Edda,"  delivers  Brynhild,  who 
had  been  doomed  to  a  magic  sleep  after  being  wounded 
with  a  thorn  by  Odin,  but  who  is  now,  like  the  spring 
after  the  sleep  of  winter,  brought  back  to  new  life  by 
the  love  of  Sigurd.  But  he,  the  lord  of  the  treasure 
("  vasupati"),  is  driven  onward  by  his  fate.  He 
plights  his  troth  to  Brynhild,  and  gives  her  the  fatal 
ring  he  had  taken  from  the  treasure.  But  he  must 
leave  her,  and  when  he  arrives  at  the  castle  of  Gunnar, 
Gunnar's  wife,  Grimhild,  makes  him  forget  Brynhild, 
and  he  marries  her  daughter,  Gudrun.  Already  his 
course  begins  to  decline.  He  is  bound  to  Gunnar, 
nay,  he  must  conquer  for  him  his  own  former  bride, 
Brynhild,  whom  Gunnar  now  marries.  Gunnar  Gju- 
kason  seems  to  signify  darkness,  and  thus  we  see  that 

1  Cf.  Rig-veda  V.  47,  1:  "  Prayuiitfatf  divaA  eti  bruvana  mahi  matft 
Juhitu/t  bodhayanti,  avivasanti  yuvati/j  manislia  pitribbyaA  a  ?adane 
yoliuvana."  On  "mahi  ma.t&"=Afagna  Mater,  see  Grassmann,  in  Kuhn's 
Zeitsctirift,  vol.  xvi.  p.  169.  "  Duhitur  bodhayanti,"  inquiring  for  or  find- 
ing her  daughter 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  109 

the  awakening  and  budding  spring  is  gone,  carried 
away  by  Gunnar,  like  Proserpina  by  Pluto ;  like  SitS 
by  Ravarca.  Gudrun,  the  daughter  of  Grimhild,  and 
sometimes  herself  called  Grimhild,  whether  the  latter 
name  meant  summer  (cf.  "  gharma  "  in  Sanskrit)  or, 
the  earth  and  nature  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year,  is  a 
sister  of  the  dark  Gunnar,  and  though  now  married  to 
the  bright  Sigurd,  she  belongs  herself  to  the  nebulous 
regions.  Gunnar,  who  has  forced  Sigurd  to  yield  him 
Brynhild,  is  now  planning  the  death  of  his  kinsman, 
because  Brynhild  has  discovered  in  Sigurd  her  former 
lover,  and  must  have  her  revenge.  Hogni  dissuades 
his  brother  Gunnar  from  the  murder ;  but  at  last  the 
third  brother  Hodr,  stabs  Sigurd  while  he  is  asleep  at 
the  winter  solstice.  Brynhild  has  always  loved  him, 
and  when  her  hero  is  killed  she  distributes  the  treasure, 
and  is  burnt,  like  Nanna,  on  the  same  pile  with  Sigurd, 
a  sword  being  placed  between  the  two  lovers.  Gu- 
drun also  bewails  the  death  of  her  husband,  but  she 
forgets  him,  and  marries  Atli,  the  brother  of  Brynhild. 
Atli  now  claims  the  treasure  from  Gunnar  and  Hogni, 
by  right  of  his  wife,  and  when  they  refuse  to  give  it 
up,  he  invites  them  to  his  house,  and  makes  them  pris- 
oners. Gunnar  still  refuses  to  reveal  the  spot  where 
the  treasure  is  buried  till  he  sees  the  heart  of  Hogni, 
his  brother.  A  heart  is  brought  him,  but  it  quivers, 
and  he  says,  "  This  is  not  the  heart  of  my  brother." 
The  real  heart  of  Hogni  is  brought  at  last,  and  Gunnar 
says,  "  Now  I  alone  know  where  the  treasure  lies,  and 
*-he  Rhine  shall  rather  have  it  than  I  will  give  it  up  to 
thee."  He  is  then  bound  by  Atli,  and  thrown  among 
serpents.  But  even  the  serpents  he  charms  by  play- 
ing on  the  harp  with  his  teeth,  till  at  last  one  viper 
crawls  up  to  him,  an4  kills  him. 


110  COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY. 

How  much  has  this  myth  been  changed,  when  we 
find  it  again  in  the  poem  of  the  "  Nibelunge  "  as  it  was 
written  down  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  in  Ger- 
many !  All  the  heroes  are  Christians,  and  have  been 
mixed  up  with  historical  persons  of  the  fourth,  fifth, 
and  sixth  centuries.  Gunther  is  localized  in  Burgundy, 
where  we  know  that,  in  435,  a  Gundicarius  or  Gun- 
dalmrius  happened  to  be  a  real  king,  the  same  who,  ac- 
cording to  Cassiodorus,  was  vanquished  first  by  Aetius, 
and  afterwards  by  the  Huns  of  Attila.  Hence  Atli, 
the  brother  of  Brynhild,  and  the  second  husband  of 
Gudrun  (or  Kriemhilt),  is  identified  with  Attila,  the 
king  of  the  Huns  (453)  ;  nay,  even  the  brother  of  At- 
tila, Bleda,  is  brought  in  as  Blodelin,  the  first  who 
attacked  the  Burgundians,  and  was  killed  by  Dankwart. 
Other  historical  persons  were  drawn  into  the  vortex  of 
the  popular  story,  persons  for  whom  there  is  no  prece- 
dent at  all  in  the  "  Edda."  Thus  we  find  in  the  "  Ni- 
belunge "  Dietrich  von  Bern,  who  is  no  other  but  The- 
odoric  the  Great  (455—525),  who  conquered  Odoacer 
in  the  battle  of  Ravenna  (the  famous  Rabenschlacht), 
and  lived  at  Verona,  in  German,  Bern.  Irenfried, 
again,  introduced  in  the  poem  as  the  Landgrave  of 
Thuringia,  has  been  discovered  to  be  Hermanfried, 
the  king  of  Thuringia,  married  to  Amalaberg,  the 
niece  of  Theodoric.  The  most  extraordinary  coinci- 
dence, however,  is  that  by  which  Sigurd,  the  lover  of 
Brynhild,  has  been  identified  with  Siegbert,  king  of 
Austrasia  from  561  to  575,  who  was  actually  married 
to  the  famous  Brunehault.  who  actually  defeated  the 
Huns,  and  was  actual lv  murdered  under  the  most  trao- 

••  O 

ical  circumstances  by  Fredegond,  the  mistress  of  his 
brother   Chilperic.      This   coincidence  between  myth 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  Ill 

and  history  is  so  great,  that  it  has  induced  some  euh em- 
eristic  critics  to  derive  the  whole  legend  of  the  "  Ni- 

O 

belunge  "  from  Austrasian  history,  and  to  make  the 
murder  of  Siegbert  by  Brunehault  the  basis  of  the 
murder  of  Sifrit  or  Sigurd  by  Brynhild.  Fortunately, 
it  is  easier  to  answer  these  German  than  the  old  Greek 
euhemerists,  for  we  find  in  contemporary  history  that 
Jorriandes,  who  wrote  his  history  at  least  twenty  years 
before  the  death  of  the  Austrasian  Siegbert,  knew 
already  the  daughter  of  the  mythic  Sigurd,  Swanhild, 
who  was  born,  according  to  the  "  Edda,"  after  the 
murder  of  his  father,  and  afterwards  killed  by  Jormun- 
rek,  whom  the  poem  has  again  historicized  in  Herman- 
ricus,  a  Gothic  king  of  the  fourth  century. 

Let  us  now  apply  to  the  Greek  myths  what  we  have 
learned  from  the  gradual  growth  of  the  German  myth. 
There  are  evidently  historical  facts  round  which  the 
myth  of  Herakles  has  crystallized,  only  we  cannot  sub- 
stantiate them  so  clearly  as  in  the  myth  of  the  "  Nibe- 
lunge,"  because  we  have  there  no  contemporaneous 
historical  documents.  Yet  as  the  chief  Herakles  is 
represented  as  belonging  to  the  royal  family  of  Argos, 
there  may  have  been  a  Herakles,  perhaps  the  son  of  a 
king  called  Amphitryo,  whose  descendants,  after  a  tem- 
porary exile,  reconquered  that  part  of  Greece  which 
had  formerly  been  under  the  sway  of  Herakles.  The 
traditions  of  the  miraculous  birth,  of  many  of  his  heroic 
adventures,  and  of  his  death,  were  as  little  based  on 
historical  facts  as  the  legends  of  Sifrit.  In  Herakles 
killing  the  Chimaera  and  similar  monsters,  we  see  the 
reflected  image  of  the  Delphian  Apollo  killing  the 
worm,  or  of  Zeus,  the  god  of  the  brilliant  sky,  with 
whom  Herakles  shares  in  common  the  names  of  Idteos, 


112  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

Olympics,  and  Pangenetor.  As  the  myth  of  Sigurd 
and  Gunnar  throws  its  last  broken  rays  on  the  kings 
of  Burgundy,  and  on  Attila  and  Theodoric,  the  myth 
of  the  solar  Herakles  was  realized  in  some  semi-his- 
torical prince  of  Argos  and  Mykenae.  Herakles  may 
have  been  the  name  of  the  national  god  of  the  Hera- 
klidas,  and  this  would  explain  the  enmity  of  Here, 
whose  worship  flourished  in  Argos  before  the  Dorian 
immigration.  What  was  formerly  told  of  a  god  was 
transferred  to  Herakles,  the  leader  of  the  Heraklidae, 
the  worshippers  or  sons  of  Herakles,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  many  local  and  historical  facts  connected  with  the 
Heraklida3  and  their  leaders  may  have  been  worked  up 
with  the  myth  of  the  divine  hero.  The  idea  of  Hera- 
kles being,  as  it  were,  the  bond-servant  of  Eurystheus, 
is  of  solar  origin  —  it  is  the  idea  of  the  sun  fettered  to 
his  work,  and  toiling  for  men,  his  inferiors  in  strength 
and  virtue.1  Thus  Sifrit  is  toiling  for  Gunther,  and 
even  Apollo  is  for  one  year  the  slave  of  Laomedon  — 
pregnant  expressions,  necessitated  by  the  absence  of 
more  abstract  verbs,  and  familiar  even  to  modern 
poets :  — 

"  As  aptly  suits  therewith  that  modest  pace 

Submitted  to  the  chains 
That  bind  thee  to  the  path  which  God  ordaina 

That  thou  shouldst  trace." 

• 

The  later  growth  of  epic  and  tragical   poetry  may 
be  Greek,  or  Indian,  or  Teutonic ;  it  may  take  the  dif- 

1  The  Peruvian  Inca,  Yupanqui,  denied  the  pretension  of  the  sun  to  Se 
tne  doer  of  all  things,  for  if  he  were  free,  he  would  go  and  visit  other  parts 
of  the  heavens  where  he  had  never  been.  "  He  is,"  said  the  Inca,  "  like  a  tied 
beast  who  goes  ever  round  and  round  in  the  same  track."  Gdrciltso  de  la 
Vega,  part  I.  viii.  8.  Acosta,  Historia  del  Nuevo  Oibe,  cap.v.  Tylor,  Early 
History  of  Mankind,  p.  343.  Brinton,  The  Myths  of  tiie  New  World,  p. 
55. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  113 

fereut  colors  of  the  different  skies,  the  different  warmth 
of  the  different  climes  ;  nay,  it  may  attract  and  absorb 
much  that  is  accidental  and  historical.  But  if  we  cut 
into  it  and  analyze  it,  the  blood  that  runs  through  all 
the  ancient  poetry  is  the  same  blood  ;  it  is  the  ancient 
mythical  speech.  The  atmosphere  in  which  the  early 
poetry  of  the  Aryans  grew  up  was  mythological,  it  wa.» 
impregnated  with  something  that  could  not  be  resisted 
by  those  who  breathed  in  it.  It  was  like  the  siren 
voice  of  the  modern  rhyme,  which  has  suggested  so 
many  common  ideas  to  poets  writing  in  a  common 
language. 

We  know  what  Greek  and  Teutonic  poets  have  made 
of    their  epic    heroes ;    let   us  see   now  whether  the 
swarthy  Hindu  has  been  able  to  throw  an  equally  beau 
tiful  haze  around  the  names  of  his  mythical  traditions. 

The  story  of  the  loves  of  Pururavas  and  Urvasi  has 
frequently  been  told  by  Hindu  poets.  We  find  it  in 
their  epic  poems,  in  their  Purawas,  and  in  the  Brihat- 
katha,  the  "  Great  Story,"  a  collection  of  the  popular 
legends  of  India.  It  has  suffered  many  changes,  yet 
even  in  Kalidasa's1  play,  of  which  I  shall  give  a 
short  abstract,  we  recognize  the  distant  background, 
and  we  may  admire  the  skill  with  which  this  poet  has 
breathed  new  life  and  human  feeling  into  the  withered 
names  of  a  language  long  forgotten. 

The  first  act  opens  with  a  scene  in  the  Himalaya 
mountains.  The  nymphs  of  heaven,  on  returning  from 
an  assembly  of  the  gods,  have  been  attacked,  and  are 


1  Professor  Wilson  has  given  the  first  and  really  beautiful  translation  of 
this  play  in  his  Hindu    Theatre.    The  original  was  published  first  at  Cal- 
cutta, and  has  since  been  reprinted  several  times.     The  best  edition  is  that 
published  by  Professor  Bollensen. 
VQt    «•  H 


114  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

mourning  over  the  loss  of  Urvasi,  who  has  been  carried 

O  7 

off  by  a  demon.  King  Pururavas  enters  on  his  chariot, 
and  on  hearing  the  cause  of  their  grief,  hastens  to  the 
rescue  of  the  nymph.  He  soon  returns,  after  having 
vanquished  the  robber,  and  restores  Urvasi  to  her 
heavenly  companions.  But  while  he  is  carrying  the 
nymph  back  to  her  friends  in  his  chariot,  he  falls  in 
love  with  her  and  she  with  him.  He  describes  how  he 
saw  her  slowly  recovering  from  her  terror  :  — 

"  She  recovers,  though  but  faintly. 
So  gently  steals  the  moon  upon  the  night, 
Retiring  tardily;  so  peeps  the  flame 
Of  coming  fires  through  smoky  wreaths;  and  thus 
The  Ganges  slowly  clears  her  troubled  wave, 
Engulfs  the  ruin  that  the  crumbling  bank 
Has  hurled  across  her  agitated  course, 
And  flows  a  clear  and  stately  stream  again." 

When  they  part,  Urvasi  wishes  to  turn  round  once 
more  to  see  Pururavas.  She  pretends  that  "  a  strag- 
gling vine  has  caught  her  garland,"  and  while  feigning 
to  disengage  herself,  she  calls  one  of  her  friends  to  help 
her.  Her  friend  replies,  — 

"  No  easy  task,  I  fear:  you  seem  entangled 
Too  fast  to  be  set  free :  but,  come  what  may, 
Depend  upon  my  friendship." 

The  eye  of  the  king  then  meets  that  of  Urvasi,  and  he 
exclaims,  — 

"  A  thousand  thanks,  dear  plant,  to  whose  kind  aid 
I  owe  another  instant,  and  behold 
But  for  a  moment,  and  imperfectly, 
Those  half-averted  charms." 

In  the  second  act  we  meet  the  king  at  Allahabad, 

o  * 

his  residence.  He  walks  in  the  garden  of  the  palace, 
accompanied  by  a  Brahman,  who  acts  the  part  of  the 
gracioso  in  the  Indian  drama.  He  is  the  confidential 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  115 

companion  of  the  king,  and  knows  his  love  for  Urvasi. 
But  lie  is  so  afraid  of  betraying  what  must  remain  a 
secret  to  everybody  at  court,  and  in  particular  to  the 
queen,  that  he  hides  himself  in  a  retired  temple. 
There  a  female  servant  of  the  queen  discovers  him, 
and  u  as  a  secret  can  no  more  rest  in  his  breast  than 
morning  dew  upon  the  grass,"  she  soon  finds  out  from 
him  why  the  king  is  so  changed  since  his  return  from 
the  battle  with  the  demon,  and  carries  the  tale  to  the 
queen.  In  the  mean  time,  the  king  is  in  despair,  and 
pours  out  his  grief,  — 

"  Like  one  contending  with  the  stream, 
And  still  borne  backwards  by  the  current's  force." 

But  Urvasi  also  is  sighing  for  Pururavas,  and  we  sud- 
denly see  her,  with  her  friend,  descending  through  the 
air  to  meet  the  king.  Both  are  at  first  invisible  to 
him,  and  listen  to  the  confession  of  his  love.  Then 
Urvasi  writes  a  verse  on  a  birch-leaf,  and  lets  it  fall 
near  the  bower  where  her  beloved  reclines.  Next, 
her  friend  becomes  visible ;  and,  at  last,  Urvasi  her- 
self is  introduced  to  the  king.  After  a  few  moments, 
however,  both  Urvasi  and  her  friend  are  called  back 
by  a  messenger  of  the  gods,  and  Pururavas  is  left 
alone  with  his  jester.  He  looks  for  the  leaf  on  which 
Urvasi  had  first  disclosed  her  love,  but  it  is  lost,  car- 
ried away  by  the  wind  :  — 

"  Bree/.e  of  the  south,  the  friend  of  love  and  spring, 
Though  from  the  flower  you  steal  the  fragrant  down 
To  scatter  perfume,  yet  wh_v  plunder  me 
Of  these  dear  characters,  her  own  fair  hand, 
In  proof  of  her  affection,  traced  ?    Thou  knowest, 
The  lonely  lover  that  in  absence  pines, 
Lives  on  such  fond  memorials-" 

But   worse   than   this,    the   leaf  is  picked  up  by    the 


116  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

queen,  who  comes  to  look  for  the  king  in  the  garden. 
There  is  a  scene  of  matrimonial  upbraiding,  and,  after 
a  while,  her  majesty  goes  off  in  a  hurry,  like  a  river  in 
the  rainy  season.  The  king  is  doubly  miserable,  for 
though  he  loves  Urvasi,  he  acknowledges  a  respectful 
deference  for  his  queen.  At  last  he  retires :  — 

"  'Tis  past  midday:  exhausted  by  the  heat, 
The  peacock  plunges  in  the  scanty  pool 
That  feeds  the  tall  tree's  root;  the  drowsy  bee 
Sleeps  in  the  hollow  chamber  of  the  lotus, 
Darkened  with  closing  petals;  on  the  brink 
Of  the  now  tepid  lake  the  wild  duck  lurks 
Amongst  the  sedgy  shades ;  and,  even  here, 
The  parrot  from  his  wiry  bower  complains, 
And  calls  for  water  to  allay  his  thirst." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  third  act  we  are  first  in- 
formed of  what  befell  Urvasi,  when  she  was  recalled 
to  Indra's  heaven.  She  had  to  act  before  Indra  —  hei 
part  was  that  of  the  goddess  of  beauty,  who  selects 
Vislmu  for  her  husband.  One  of  the  names  of  Vishnu 
is  Purushottama,  and  poor  Urvasi,  when  called  upon 
to  confess  whom  she  loves,  forgetting  the  part  she  has 
to  act,  says,  "  I  love  Pururavas,"  instead  of  "  I  love 
Purushottama."  The  author  of  the  play  was  so  much 
exasperated  by  this  mistake,  that  he  pronounced  a 
curse  upon  Urvasi,  that  she  should  lose  her  divine 
knowledge.  But  when  the  performance  was  over, 
Indra  observing  her  as  she  stood  apart,  ashamed  and 
disconsolate,  called  her.  The  mortal  who  engrossed 
her  thoughts,  he  said,  had  been  his  friend  in  the  hours 
of  peril ;  he  had  aided  him  in  conflict  with  the  enemies 
of  the  gods,  and  was  entitled  to  his  acknowledgments. 
She  must,  accordingly,  repair  to  the  monarch,  and  re- 
main with  him  "  till  he  beholds  the  offspring  she  shall 
bear  him." 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  117 

A  second  scene  opens,  in  the  garden  of  the  palace. 
The  king  has  been  engaged  in  the  business  of  the 
state,  and  retires  as  the  evening  approaches :  — 

"  So  ends  the  day,  the  anxious  cares  of  state 
Have  left  no  interval  for  private  sorrow. 
But  how  to  pass  the  night?  its  dreary  length 
Affords  no  promise  of  relief." 

A  messenger  arrives  from  the  queen,  apprising  his 
majesty  that  she  desires  to  see  him  on  the  terrace  of 
the  pavilion.  The  king  obeys — and  ascends  the  crys- 
tal steps  while  the  moon  is  just  about  to  rise,  and  the 
east  is  tinged  with  red. 

"King.  —  'Tis  even  so;  illumined  by  the  rays 

Of  his  yet  unseen  orb,  the  evening  gloom 
On  either  hand  retires,  and  in  the  midst 
The  horizon  glows,  like  a  fair  face  that  smiles 
Betwixt  the  jetty  curls  on  either  brow 
In  clusters  pendulous.    I  could  gaze  forever." 

As  he  is  waiting  for  the  queen,  his  desire  for  Urva«i  is 
awakened  again :  — 

"  In  truth,  my  fond  desire 
Becomes  more  fervid  as  enjoyment  seems 
Remote,  and  fresh  impediments  obstruct 
My  happiness  —  like  an  impetuous  torrent, 
That,  checked  by  adverse  rocks,  awhile  delays 
Its  course,  till  high  with  chafing  waters  swollen 
It  rushes  past  with  aggravated  fury. 
As  spreads  the  moon  its  lustre,  so  my  love 
Grows  with  advancing  night." 

On  a  sudden  Urvasi  enters  on  a  heavenly  car,  accom- 
panied by  her  friend.  They  are  invisible  again,  and 
listen  to  the  king;  but  the  moment  that  Urvasi  is 
about  to  withdraw  her  veil,  the  queen  appears.  She 
is  dressed  in  white,  without  any  ornaments ;  and  comes 
to  propitiate  her  husband,  by  taking  a  vow. 

"  King.  —  In  truth  she  pleases  me.    Thus  chastely  robed 
In  modest  white,  her  clustering  tresses  decked 


118          COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

With  sacred  flowers  alone,  her  haughty  mien 
Exchanged  for  meek  devotion:  thus  arrayed 
She  moves  with  heightened  charms. 

"  Queen.  —My  gracious  lord,  I  would  perform  a  rite, 

Of  which  you  are  the  object,  and  must  beg  yon 
Bear  with  the  inconvenience  that  my  presence 
May  for  brief  time  occasion  you. 

"  King.  —  You  do  me  wrong ;  your  presence  is  a  favor, 
.     .    .    .    Yet  trust  me,  it  is  needless 
To  wear  this  tender  form,  as  slight  and  delicate 
As  the  lithe  lot  us  stem,  with  rude  austerity. 
In  me  behold  your  slave,  whom  to  propitiate 
Claims  not  your  care,  —  your  favor  is  his  happiness. 

•'  Queen.  — Not  vain  my  vow,  since  it  already  wins  me 
My  lord's  complacent  speech." 

Then  the  queen  performs  her  solemn  vow ;  she  calls 
upon  the  god  of  the  moon  — 

"  Hear,  and  attest 

The  sacred  promise  that  I  make  my  husband! 
Whatever  nymph  attract  my  lord's  regard, 
And  shaie  with  him  the  mutual  bonds  of  love, 
I  henceforth  treat  with  kindness  and  complacency." 

"JTie  Brahman,  the  confidential  friend  of  the  king,  (apart  to  Purftravas). 
The  culprit  that  escapes  before  his  hand  is  cut  off  determines  never  to 
run  such  a  risk  again.  (Aloud.)  What  then;  is  his  majesty  indifferent  to 
rour  grace  ? 

"  Queen.  —  Wise  sir,  how  think  you,  —  to  promote  his  happiness 
I  have  resigned  my  own.    Does  such  a  purpose 
Prove  him  no  longer  dear  to  me? 

"  King.  —  I  am  not  what  you  doubt  me ;  but  the  power 
Abides  with  you;  do  with  me  as  you  will. 
Give  me  to  whom  you  please,  or  if  you  please, 
Retain  me  still  your  slave. 

*  Queen. — Be  what  you  list; 

My  vow  is  plighted  —  nor  in  vain  the  rite, 
If  it  afford  you  satisfaction.     Come 
Hence,  girls ;  'tis  time  we  take  our  leave. 

"  King.  —  Not  so : 

So  soon  to  leave  me  is  no  mark  of  favor. 

'*  Queen.  —  You  must  excuse  me;  I  may  not  forego 
The  duties  I  have  solemnlv  incurred." 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  119 

It  does  not  bring  out  the  character  of  the  kino;  under 
a  very  favorable  light,  that  this  scene  of  matrimonial 
reconciliation,  when  the  queen  acts  a  part  which  we 
should  hardly  expect  on  an  oriental  stage,  should  be 
followed  immediately  by  the  apparition  of  Urvasi. 
She  has  been  present,  though  invisible,  during  the  pre- 
ceding conversation  between  him  and  his  queen,  and 
she  now  advances  behind  the  king,  and  covers  his  eyes 
with  her  hands. 

"  It  must  be  Urvasi  (the  king  says); 
No  other  hand  could  shed  such  ecstasy 
Through  this  emaciate  frame.     The  solar  ray 
Wakes  not  the  night's  fair  blossom;  that  alone 
Expands  when  conscious  of  the  moon's  dear  presence."  J 

Urvasi  takes  the  resignation  of  the  queen  in  good 
earnest,  and  claims  the  king  as  granted  her  by  right. 
Her  friend  takes  leave,  and  she  now  remains  with 
Pururavas  as  his  beloved  wife. 

"  Urvasi.  —  I  lament 

I  caused  my  lord  to  suffer  pain  so  long. 

"  King.  —  Nay,  say  not  so !     The  joy  that  follows  grief 
Gains  richer  zest  from  agony  foregone. 
The  traveller  who,  faint,  pursues  his  track 
In  the  fierce  day  alone  can  tell  how  sweet 
The  grateful  shelter  of  the  friendly  tree." 

The  next  act  .is  the  gem  of  the  whole  play,  though 
it  is  very  difficult  to  imagine  how  it  was  performed 
without  a  mise  en  scene  such  as  our  modern  theatres 
would  hardly  be  able  to  afford.  It  is  a  melo-dramatic 
intermezzo,  very  different  in  style  from  the  rest  of  the 
play.  It  is  all  in  poetry,  and  in  the  most  perfect  and 

1  This  refers  to  a  very  well-known  legend.  There,  is  one  lofus  which 
expands  its  flower  at  the  approach  of  the  sun  and  closes  them  during  night: 
while  another,  the  beloved  of  the  moon,  expands  them  during  night  and 
closes  them  during  day-time.  We  have  a  similar  myth  of  the  daisy,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  "dseges  cage,"  day's  eye,  Wordsworth's  darling. 


120  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

highly  elaborate  metres.  Besides,  it  is  not  written  in 
Sanskrit,  but  in  Prakrit,  the  lingua  vulgaris  of  India, 
poorer  in  form,  but  more  melodious  in  sound  than 
Sanskrit.  Some  of  the  verses  are  like  airs  to  be  per- 
formed by  a  chorus,  but  the  stage  directions  which  are 
given  in  the  MSS.  are  so  technical  as  to  make  their 
exact  interpretation  extremely  difficult. 

We  first  have  a  chorus  of  nymphs,  deploring  the 
fate  of  Urvasi.  She  had  been  living  with  the  king  in 
the  groves  of  a  forest,  in  undisturbed  happiness. 

"  Whilst  wandering  pleasantly  along  the  brink 
Of  the  Mandakinf,  a  nymph  of  air, 
Who  gamboled  on  its  sandy  shore,  attracted 
The  monarch's  momentary  glance,  —  and  this 
Aroused  the  jealous  wrath  of  Urvasi. 
Thus  incensed 

She  heedlessly  forgot  the  law  that  bars 
All  female  access  from  the  hateful  groves 
Of  Kartikeya.     Trespassing  the  bounds 
Proscribed,  she  suffers  now  the  penalty 
Of  her  transgression,  and,  to  a  slender  vine 
Transformed,  there  pines  till  time  shall  set  her  free.' 

Mournful  strains  are  heard  in  the  air  — 

"  Soft  voices  low  sound  in  the  sky, 

Where  the  nymphs  a  companion  deplore, 
And  lament,  as  together  they  fly, 
The  friend  they  encounter  no  more. 

"  So  sad  and  melodious  awakes 

The  plaint  of  the  swan  o'er  the  stream 
Where  the  red  lotus  blossoms,  as  breaks 
On  the  wave  the  day's  orient  beam. 

11  Amidst  the  lake  where  the  lotus,  shining, 

Its  flowers  unfold  to  the  sunny  beam. 
The  swan,  for  her  lost  companion  pining, 
Swims  sad  and  slow  o'er  the  lonely  stream." 

The  king  now  enters,  his  features  expressing  insanity 
—  his  dress  disordered.  The  scene  represents  a  wild 
forest,  clouds  gathering  overhead,  elephants,  deer,  pea- 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  121 

cocks,  and  swans  are  seen.  Here  are  rocks  and  water- 
falls, lightning  and  rain.  The  king  first  rushes  fran- 
tically after  a  cloud  which  he  mistakes  for  a  demon 
that  carried  away  his  bride. 

"  Hold,  treacherous  fiend;  suspend  thy  flight  —  forbear: 
Ah!  whither  wouldst  thou  bear  my  beauteous  bride? 
'And  now  his  arrows  sting  me;  thick  as  hail, 
From  yonder  peak,  whose  sharp  top  pierces  heaven, 
They  shower  upon  me. 

[Rushes  forward  as  to  the  attack,  then  pauses,  and  lookt 
upwards. 

It  is  DO  demon,  but  a  friendly  cloud, — 

No  hostile  quiver,  but  the  bow  of  Indra; 

The  cooling  rain-drops  fall,  not  barbed  shafts, — 

And  I  mistake  the  lightning  for  my  love." 

These  raving  strains  are  interrupted  by  airs,  bewail 
ing  the  fate  of  the  separated  lovers ;  but  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  give  an  id^a  of  the  real  beauty  of  the  whole, 
without  much  fuller  extracts  than  we  are  able  to  give. 
The  following  passages  may  suffice  :  — 

"  Ah  me !  whatever  I  behold  but  aggravates 
My  woe.    These  bright  and  pendulous  flowers, 
Surcharged  with  dew,  resemble  those  dear  eyes, 
Glistening  with  starting  tears.    How  shall  I  leara 
If  she  have  passed  this  way  ?  " 

He  addresses  various  birds,  and  asks  them  whether 
they  have  seen  his  love :  the  peacock,  "  the  bird  of 
the  dark  blue  throat  and  eye  of  jet,"  —  the  cuckoo, 
"  whom  lovers  deem  Love's  messenger,"  —  the  swans, 
"  who  are  sailing  northward,  and  whose  elegant  gait 
betrays  that  they  have  seen  her,"  —  the  "  tfakravaka," 
"  a  bird  who,  during  the  night,  is  himself  separated  from 
his  mate,"  —  but  none  give  answer.  Neither  he,  nor 
the  bees  who  murmur  amidst  the  petals  of  the  lotus, 
nor  the  royal  elephant,  that  reclines  with  his  mate  ui) 
der  the  kadamba-tree,  has  seen  the  lost  one. 


122          COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

u  King.  —  From  his  companion  he  accepts  the  hough 

Her  trunk  has  snapped  from  the  balm-breathing  hee- 
How  rich  with  teeming  shoots  and  juicy  fragrance. 
He  crushes  it. 

Deep  on  the  mountain's  breast 
A  yawning  chasm  appears  —  such  shades  are  ever 
Haunts  of  the  nymphs  of  air  and  earth.    Perchance, 
My  Urvasl  now  lurks  within  the  grotto, 
In  cool  seclusion.     I  will  enter.  —  All 
Is  utter  darkness.     Would  the  lightning's  flash     ' 
Now  blaze  to  guide  me  —    No,  the  cloud  disdains  — 
Such  is  my  fate  perverse  —  to  shed  for  me 
Its  many-channeled  radiance.    Be  it  so. 
I  will  retire  —  but  first  the  rock  address. 


"  With  horny  hoofs  and  a  resolute  breast, 
The  boar  through  the  thicket  stalks; 

He  ploughs  up  the  ground,  as  he  plies  his  quest 
In  the  forest's  gloomiest  walks. 

Say,  mountain,  whose  expansive  slope  confines 
The  forest  verge,  —  O  tell  me,  hast  thou  seen 
A  nymph,  as  beauteous  as  the  bride  of  love, 
Mounting,  with  slender  frame,  thy  steep  ascent, 
Or,  wearied,  resting  in  thy  crowning  woods? 
How !  no  reply 't  remote,  he  hears  me  not,  — 
I  will  approach  him  nearer. 

Air. 

"  From  the  crystal  summits  the  glistening  spring* 

Rush  down  the  flowery  sides, 
And  the  spirit  of  heaven  delightedly  sings, 

As  among  the  peaks  he  hides. 
Say,  mountain  so  favored,  —  have  the  feet 
Of  my  fair  one  pressed  this  calm  retreat? 

*  Now,  by  my  hopes,  he  answers !     He  has  seen  her: 
Where  is  she  ?  —  say.    Alas !  again  deceived. 
Alone  I  hear  the  echo  of  my  words, 
As  round  the  cavern's  hollow  mouth  they  roll, 
And  multiplied  return.    Ah,  Urvasi ! 
Fatigue  has  overcome  me.     I  will  rest 
Upon  the  borders  of  this  mountain  torrent, 
And  gather  vigor  from  the  breeze  that  gleans 
Refreshing  coolness  from  its  gelid  waves. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.          123 

Whilst  gazing  on  the  stream  whose  new  swoln  waters 

Yet  turbid  flow,  what  strange  imaginings 

Possess  my  soul,  and  fill  it  with  delight. 

The  rippling  wave  is  like  her  arching  brow; 

The  fluttering  line  of  storks,  her  timid  tongue; 

The  foamy  spray,  her  white  loose  floating  robe; 

And  this  meandering  course  the  current  tracks, 

Her  undulating  gait.     All  these  recall 

My  soon-offended  love.     I  must  appease  her    .... 

I'll  back  to  where  my  love  first  disappeared. 

Yonder  the  black  deer  couchant  lies;  of  him 

I  will  inquire.     0,  antelope,  behold    .... 

How !  he  averts  his  gaze,  as  if  disdaining 

To  hear  my  suit !     Ah  no,  he,  anxious,  marks 

His  doe  approach  him ;  tardily  she  comes, 

Her  frolic  fawn  impeding  her  advance." 

At  last  the  king  finds  a  gem,  of  ruddy  radiance  ;  it 
is  the  gem  of  union,  which,  by  its  mighty  spell,  should 
restore  Urvasi  to  her  lover.  He  holds  it  in  his  hands, 
and  embraces  the  vine,  which  is  now  transformed  into 
Urvasi.  The  gem  is  placed  on  Urvasi's  forehead,  and 
the  king  and  his  heavenly  queen  return  to  Allahabad. 

"  Yonder  cloud 

Shall  be  onr  downy  car,  to  waft  us  swift 
And  lightly  on  our  way;  the  lightning's  wave 
Its  glittering  banners;  and  the  bow  of  Indra  (the  rainbow) 
Hangs  as  its  overarching  canopy 
Of  variegated  and  resplendent  hues." 

[Exeunt  on  the  cloud.    Music. 

The  fifth  and  last  act  begins  with  an  unlucky  inci- 
dent. A  hawk  has  borne  away  the  ruby  of  reunion. 
Orders  are  sent  to  shoot  the  thief,  and,  after  a  short 
pause,  a  forester  brings  the  jewel  and  the  arrow  by 
which  the  hawk  was  killed.  An  inscription  is  discov- 
ered on  the  shaft,  which  states  that  it  belonged  to 
Ayus,  the  son  of  Urvasi  and  Pururavas.  The  king  is 
not  aware  that  Urvasi  has  ever  borne  him  a  son ;  but 
while  he  is  still  wondering,  a  female  ascetic  enters, 


124  COMPARATIVE  B1YTHOLOGY. 

leading  a  boy  with  a  bow  in  his  hand.  It  is  Ayus,  the 
son  of  Urvasi,  whom  his  mother  confided  to  the  pious 
Tfyavana,  who  educated  him  in  the  forest,  and  now 
sends  him  back  to  his  mother.  The  king  soon  recog- 
nizes Ayus  as  his  son.  Urvasi  also  comes  to  embrace 
him :  — 

"  Her  gaze  intent 

Is  fixed  upon  him,  and  her  heaving  bosom 
Has  rent  its  veiling  scarf." 

But  why  has  she  concealed  the  birth  of  this  child  ? 
and  why  is  she  now  suddenly  bursting  into  tears? 
She  tells  the  king  herself,  — 

"  When  for  your  love  I  gladly  left  the  courts 
Of  heaven,  the  monarch  thus  declared  his  will: 
'  Go,  and  be  happy  with  the  prince,  my  friend; 
But  when  he  views  the  son  that  thou  shall  bear  him, 
Then  hitherward  direct  thy  prompt  return.'    .    .    . 
The.  fated  term  expires,  and  to  console 
His  father  for  my  loss,  he  is  restored. 
I  may  no  longer  tarry. 

"King.  —  The  tree  that  languished  in  the  summer's  blaze 
Puts  forth,  reviving,  as  young  rain  descends, 
Its  leafy  shoots,  when  lo!  the  lightning  bursts 
Fierce  on  its  top,  and  fells  it  to  the  ground. 

"  Urvasi.  —  But  what  remains  for  me  ?  my  task  on  earth 

Fulfilled.    Once  gone,  the  king  will  soon  forget  me. 

"King.  —  Dearest,  not  so.    It  is  no  grateful  task 

To  tear  our  memory  from  those  we  love. 

But  we  must  bow  to  power  supreme ;  do  you 

Obey  your  lord;  for  me,  I  will  resign 

My  throne  to  this  my  son,  and  with  the  deer 

Will  henceforth  mourn  amidst  the  lonely  woods." 

Preparations  are  made  for  the  inauguration  of  the 
young  king,  when  a  new  deus  ex  machina  appears  — 
Narada,  the  messenger  of  Indra. 

"Meuenger.  —  May  your  days  be  many !  King,  attend : 
The  mighty  Indra,  to  whom  all  is  known, 
By  me  thus  intimates  his  high  commands. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  125 

Forego  your  purpose  of  ascetic  sorrow, 
And  Urvasi  shall  be  through  life  united 
With  thee  in  holy  bonds." 

After  this  all  concludes  happily.  Nymphs  descend 
from  heaven  with  a  golden  vase  containing  the  water 
of  the  heavenly  Ganges,  a  throne,  and  other  parapher- 
nalia, which  they  arrange.  The  prince  is  inaugurated 
as  partner  of  the  empire,  and  all  go  together  to  pay 
their  homage  to  the  queen,  who  had  so  generously 
resigned  her  rights  in  favor  of  Urvasi,  the  heavenly 
nymph. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  full  flower  whose  stem  we 
trace  through  the  Puranas  and  the  Mahabharatatothe 
Brali  ma  Has  and  the  Veda,  while  the  seed  lies  buried 
deep  in  that  fertile  stratum  of  language  from  which  all 
the  Aryan  dialects  draw  their  strength  and  nourish- 
ment. Mr.  Carlyle  had  seen  deep  into  the  very  heart 
of  mythology  when  he  said,  "  Thus,  though  tradition 
may  have  but  one  root,  it  grows,  like  a  banian,  into  a 
whole  overarching  labyrinth  of  trees."  The  root  of 
all  the  stories  of  Pururavas  and  Urvasi  were  short 
proverbial  expressions,  of  which  ancient  dialects  are 
so  fond.  Thus :  "  Urvasi  loves  Pururavas,"  meant 
c'  the  sun  rises ;  "  "  Urvasi  sees  Pururavas  naked," 
meant  "  the  dawn  is  gone  ;  "  "  Urvasi  finds  Pururavas 
again,"  meant  "  the  sun  is  setting."  The  names  of 
Pururavas  and  Urvasi  are  of  Indian  growth,  and  we 
cannot  expect  to  find  them  identically  the  same  in 
other  Aryan  dialects.  But  the  same  ideas  pervade 
the  mythological  language  of  Greece.  There  one  of 
the  many  names  of  the  dawn  was  Euiydike  (p.  102). 
The  name  of  her  husband  is,  like  many  Greek  words, 
inexplicable,  but  Orpheus  is  the  same  word  as  the 


126  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

Sanskrit  "Zfcbhu"  or  "Arbliu,"  which,  though  it  x 
best  known  as  the  name  of  the  three  Tfibhus,  was  used 
in  the  Veda  as  an  epithet  of  Indra,  and  a  name  of  the 
sun.  The  old  story  then,  was  this :  "  TSurydike  is 
bitten  by  a  serpent  (i.  e.  by  the  night),  she  dies,  and 
descends  into  the  lower  regions.  Orpheus  follows  her, 
and  obtains  from  the  gods  that  his  wife  should  follow 
him  if  he  promised  not  to  look  back.  Orpheus  prom- 
ises, —  ascends  from  the  dark  world  below ;  Eurydike 
is  behind  him  as  he  rises,  but,  drawn  by  doubt  or  by 
love,  he  looks  round  ;  the  first  ray  of  the  sun  glances 
at  the  dawn,  —  and  the  dawn  fades  away."  There 
may  have  been  an  old  poet  of  the  name  of  Orpheus, 
—  for  old  poets  delight  in  solar  names  ;  but,  whether 
he  existed  or  not,  certain  it  is,  that  the  story  of  Or- 
pheus and  Eurydike  was  neither  borrowed  from  a  real 
event,  nor  invented  without  provocation.  In  India 
also,  the  myth  of  the  Tftbhus  has  taken  a  local  and 
historical  coloring  by  a  mere  similarity  of  names.  A 
man,  or  a  tribe  of  the  name  of  Bribu  (Rv.  VI.  45, 
31-33). *  was  admitted  into  the  Brahmanic  community. 
They  were  carpenters,  and  had  evidently  rendered 
material  assistance  to  the  family  of  a  Vedic  chief, 
Bharadvax/a.  As  they  had  no  Vaidik  gods,  the  JsJib- 
hus  were  made  over  to  them,  and  many  things  were 
ascribed  to  these  gods  which  originally  applied  only  to 
the  mortal  Bribus.  These  historical  realities  will  never 
yield  to  a  mythological  analysis,  while  the  truly  myth- 
ological answers  at  once  if  we  only  know  how  to  test 
it.  There  is  a  grammar  by  which  that  ancient  dialect 
can  be  retranslated  into  the  common  language  of  the 
Aryans. 

1  This  explains  the  passage  in  Manu  X.  107,  and  shows  how  it  ought  to 
be  corrected. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  127 

J  must  come  to  a  close  ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  leaA  3  a 
subject  in  which,  as  in  an  arch,  each  stone  by  itself 
threatens  to  fall,  while  the  whole  arch  would  stand  the 
strongest  pressure.  One  myth  more.  —  We  have  seen 
how  the  sun  and  the  dawn  have  suggested  so  many 
expressions  of  love,  that  we  may  well  ask,  did  the 
Aryan  nations,  previous  to  their  separation,  know  the 
most  ancient  of  the  gods,  the  god  of  love  ?  Was  Eros 
known  at  that  distant  period  of  awakening  history,  and 
what  was  meant  by  the  name  by  which  the  Aryans 
called  him  ?  The  common  etymology  derives  "  Eros  " 
from  a  Sanskrit  root,  "  vri  "  or  "  var,"  which  means  to 
choose,  to  select, 

Now,  if  the  name  of  love  had  first  been  coined  in 
our  ball-rooms,  such  an  etymology  might  be  defensible, 
but  surely  the  idea  of  weighing,  comparing,  and  pru- 
dently choosing  could  not  have  struck  a  strong  and 
genuine  heart  as  the  most  prominent  feature  of  love. 
Let  us  imagine,  as  well  as  we  can,  the  healthy  and 
strong  feelings  of  a  youthful  race  of  men,  free  to  fol- 
low the  call  of  their  hearts,  —  unfettered  by  the  rules 
and  prejudices  of  a  refined  society,  and  controlled  only 
by  those  laws  which  Nature  and  the  Graces  have  en- 
graved on  every  human  heart.  Let  us  imagine  such 
hearts  suddenly  lighted  up  by  love,  —  by  a  feeling  of 
which  they  knew  not  either  whence  it  came  and 
whither  it  would  carry  them  ;  an  impulse  they  did 
.  ot  even  know  how  to  name.  If  they  wanted  a  name 
for  it,  where  could  they  look  ?  Was  not  love  to  them 
like  an  awakening  from  sle^p  ?  Was  it  not  like  a 
morn  radiating  with  heavenly  splendor  over  their  souls, 
pervading  their  hearts  with  a  glowing  warmth,  purify- 
ing their  whole  being  like  a  fresh  breeze,  and  illuminat- 


128  COMPARATIVE  MYTIIOLOGY. 

ing  the  whole  world  around  them  with  a  new  light  ? 
If  it  was  so,  there  was  but  one  name  by  which  they 
could  express  love,  —  there  was  but  one  similitude  for 
the  roseate  bloom  that  betrays  the  dawn  of  love  —  it 
was  the  blush  of  the  day,  the  rising  of  the  sun.  "  The 
sun  has  risen,"  they  said,  where  we  say,  "  I  love  ; " 
"  The  sun  has  set,"  they  said,  where  we  say,  "  I  have 
loved." 

And  this,  which  we  might  have  guessed,  if  we  could 
but  throw  off  the  fetters  of  our  own  language,  is  fully 
confirmed  by  an  analysis  of  ancient  speech.  The  name 
of  the  dawn  in  Sanskrit  is  "  ushas,"  the  Greek  "Eu>?, 
both  feminine.  But  the  Veda  knows  also  a  masculine 
dawn,  or  rather  a  dawning  sun  ("  Agni  aushasya," 
'Ewo;)»  and  m  this  sense  Ushas  might  be  supposed  to 
have  taken  in  Greek  the  form  ofEpws.  S  is  frequently 
changed  into  r.  In  Sanskrit  it  is  a  general  rule  that  * 
followed  by  a  media  becomes  r.  In  Greek  we  have 
the  Lakonic  forms  in  np  instead  of  os  (Ahrens,  "  D.  D." 
§  8)  ;  in  Latin  an  r  between  two  vowels  often  exists  in 
ancient  inscriptions  under  the  more  original  form  of  8 
(,/sa  =  ara).  The  very  word  "  ushas  "  has  in  Latin 
taken  the  form  of  aurora,  which  is  derived  from  an 
intermediate  auros,  auroris,  like^ora,  from  flos,  floris. 

But,  however  plausible  such  analogies  may  seem,  it 
is  only  throwing  dust  in  our  eyes  if  comparative  philol- 
ogists imagine  they  can  establish  in  this  manner  the 
transition  of  a  Sanskrit  sh  into  a  Greek  r.  No,  what- 
ever analogies  other  dialects  may  exhibit,  no  Sanskrit 
sh  between  two  vowels  has  ever  as  yet  been  proved 
to  be  represented  by  a  Greek  r.  Therefore  Eros 
cannot  be  Ushas. 

And  yet  the  name  of  Eros  was  originally  that  of  the 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  129 

dawning  sun.  The  Sun  in  the  Veda  is  frequently 
called  the  runner,  the  quick  racer,  or  simply  the  horse, 
while  in  the  more  humanized  mythology  of  Greece,  and 
also  in  many  parts  of  the  Veda,  he  is  represented  as 
standing  on  his  cart,  which  in  the  Veda  is  drawn  by 
two,  seven,  or  ten  horses,  while  in  Greek  we  also  have 
the  quadriga :  — 

"tiplia.ro.  (lev  ra.Se  Xo/xwpa  TfOpiirtriav 
'HXtof  rj5»j  Xa/x7rei  card  yr^v 

These  horses  are  called  "  haritas ; "  they  are  al- 
ways feminine.  They  are  called  "  bhadras,"  happy  or 
joyful  (I.  115,  3)  ;  "  Aritras,"  many-colored  (I.  115, 
8)  ;  "  ghrita&is  "  and  "  ghritasn&s,"  bathed  in  dew  (IV. 
6,  9)  ;  "  svan&as,"  with  beautiful  steps ;  "  vitaprish- 
<7ias,"  with  lovely  backs  (V.  45, 10).  Thus  we  read :  — 

Rv.  IX.  63,  9.  "  The  Sun  has  yoked  the  ten  Harits 
for  his  journey." 

Rv.  I.  50,  8.  "  The  seven  Harits  bring  thee,  O 
bright  Sun,  on  thy  cart." 

Rv.  IV.  13,  3.  "  The  seven  Harits  bring  him,  the 
Sun,  the  spy  of  the  world." 

In  other  passages,  however,  they  take  a  more  human 
form,  and  as  the  Dawn  which  is  sometimes  called  sim- 
ply "  asva,"  the  mare,  is  well  known  by  the  name  of 
the  sister,  these  Harits  also  are  called  the  Seven  Sisters 
(VII.  66,  15) ;  and  in  one  passage  (IX.  86,  37)  they 
appear  as  "  the  Harits  with  beautiful  wings."  After 
this  I  need  hardly  say  that  we  have  here  the  prototype 
of  the  Grecian  "  Charites."  1 

I  should  like  to  follow  the  track  which  this  recogni- 
tion of  the  Charites,  as  the  Sanskrit  "  Haritas,"  opens 

1  This  point  has  been  more  fully  discussed  in  the  Second  Series  of  my 
Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  p.  368. 
VOL.  ii.  9 


130  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

to  comparative  mythology  ;  but  I  must  return  to  Eros, 
in  whose  company  they  so  frequently  appear.  If,  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  which  regulate  the  metamorphosis 
of  common  Aryan  words  adopted  in  Greek  or  Sanskrit, 
we  try  to  transliterate  ^ows  into  Sanskrit,  we  find  that 
its  derivative  suffix  cos,  wros,  is  the  same  as  the  termina- 
tion of  the  participle  of  the  perfect.  This  termination 
is  commonly  represented  in  Sanskrit  by  "  vas,"  nom. 
masc.  "van,"  fern,  "ushi,"  neut.  "vat,"  and  this,  though 
very  different  grammatically,  may  etymologically  bo 
considered  as  a  modified  form  of  the  originally  possessive 
suffix  "  vat,"  nom.  masc.  "  van,"  fern.  "  vati,"  neut. 
"  vat."  There  being  no  short  e  in  Sanskrit,  and  a  Greek 
p  corresponding  to  a  Sanskrit  r,  Ipws,  Ipwros,  if  it  existed 
at  all  in  Sanskrit,  would  have  had  the  form  of  "  ar-vas," 
nom.  "  arvan,"  gen.  "  arushas."  Now  it  is  true  that  we 
do  not  find  in  Sanskrit  "  ar-van,"  gen.  "  ar-ushas,"  with 
any  meaning  that  approaches  the  Greek  epeo?.  But  we 
find  "  ar-vat,"  gen.  "  ar-vatas,"  which  in  the  later 
Sanskrit  means  a  horse,  and  which  in  the  Veda  has  re- 
tained traces  of  its  radical  power,  and  still  displays  the 
sense  of  quick,  running,  vehement.  This  very  word 
is  applied  to  the  Sun,  so  that  in  some  passages  it  stands 
as  the  name  of  the  Sun,  while  in  others  it  is  used  as  a 
substantive,  meaning  horse  or  rider.  Thus,  through 
the  irresistible  influence  of  the  synonymous  character 
of  ancient  language,  and  without  any  poetical  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  speaker,  those  who  spoke  of  the  sun  as 
"  arvat,"  spoke  and  thought  at  the  same  time  of  a  horse 
or  rider.  The  word  "  arvat,"  though  intended  only  to 
express  the  rapid  sun,  set  other  ideas  vibrating  which 
gradually  changed  the  sun  into  a  horse  or  a  horseman. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.          131 

"  Arvat  "  means  simply  horse  in  passages  like  I.  91, 
20:  — 

"  Tlie  god  Soma  gives  us  the  cow  ;  Soma  gives  us 
the  quick  horse  ;  Soma  gives  a  strong  son." 

It  means  horseman  or  runner  (Rv.  I.  152,  5)  :  — 

"  The  rider  is  born  without  a  horse,  without  a 
bridle." 

The  rider  who  is  meant  here  is  the  rising  sun,  and 
there  is  a  whole  hymn  addressed  to  the  sun  as  a  horse. 
Nay,  the  growth  of  language  and  thought  is  so  quick 
that  in  the  Veda  the  myth  turns,  so  to  speak,  back 
upon  itself;  and  one  of  the  poets  (I.  163,  2)  praises 
the  bright  Vasus,  because  "  out  of  the  sun  they  have 
wrought  a  horse."  Thus  "  arvat  "  becomes  by  itself, 
without  any  adjective  or  explanation,  the  name  for  sun, 
like  "  surya,"  "  aditya,"  or  any  other  of  his  old  titles. 
Rv.  I.  163,  3,  the  poet  tells  the  sun,  "  Thou,  O  Arvat 
(horse),  art  Aditya  "  (the  sun)  ;  and  (VI.  12,  6), 
Agni,  or  the  fire  of  the  sun,  is  invoked  by  the  same 
name  :  "  Thou,  O  Arvat,  keep  us  from  evil  report !  O 
Agni,  lighted  with  all  the  fires !  thou  givest  treasures, 
thou  sendest  away  all  evils  ;  let  us  live  happy  for  hun- 
dred winters  ;  let  us  have  good  offspring." 

Before  we  can  show  how  the  threads  of  this  name  of 
the  sun  in  India  enter  into  the  first  woof  of  the  god  of 
love  in  Greece,  we  have  still  to  observe  that  sometimes 
the  horses,  i.  e.  the  rays  of  the  sun,  are  called  not  only 
"  haritas,"  but  "  rohitas  "  (or  "  rohitas  ")  and  "  aru- 
shis"  (or  "arusha's").  Rv.  I.  14,  12:  "  Yoke  the 
A'rushis  to  thy  cart,  O  bright  Agni !  the  Harfts,  the 
Roh  its  !  with  them  bring  the  gods  to  us ! "  These 

O  O 

names    may   have    been   originally   mere    adjectives, 


132  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

meaning  red,  bright,  or  brown,1  but  they  soon  grew 
into  names  of  certain  animals  belonging  to  certain 
gods,  according  to  their  different  color  and  character. 
Thus  we  read  :  — 

Rv.  II.  10,  2.  "  He?r  thou,  the  brilliant  Agni,  my 
prayer ;  whether  the  two  black  horses  (*  syava. ') 
bring  thy  cart,  or  the  two  ruddy  ('  rohita '),  or  the 
two  red  horses  ('  arusha ')." 

And  again :  — 

Rv.  VII.  42,  2.  "  Yoke  the  Harits  and  the  Rohits, 
or  the  Arushas  which  are  in  thy  stable." 

"  A'rushi,"  by  itself,  is  also  used  for  cow ;  for  in- 
stance (VIII.  55,  3),  where  a  poet  says  that  lie  has  re- 
ceived four  hundred  cows  ("  arushmam  &atuA-satrn  "). 
These  "  arushis,"  or  bright  cows,  belong  more  particu- 
larly to  the  Dawn,  and  instead  of  saying  "  the  day 
dawns,"  the  old  poets  of  the  Veda  say  frequently,  "  the 
bright  cows  return  "  (Rv.  I.  92,  1).  We  found  that 
the  Harits  were  sometimes  changed  into  seven  sisters, 
and  thus  the  A'ruslns  also,  originally  the  bright  cows, 
underwent  the  same  metamorphosis  :  — 

Rv.  X.  5,  5.  "  He  brought  the  Seven  Sisters,  the 
A'rushis  (the  bright  cows)  ; "  or  (X.  8,  3),  "  When 
the  sun  flew  up,  the  A'rushis  refreshed  their  bodies  in 
the  water." 

Sanskrit  scholars  need  hardly  be  told  that  this  "  aru- 
sln  "  is  in  reality  the  feminine  of  a  form  "  arvas,"  nom. 
"  arvan,"  gen.  "  arushas,"  while  "  arvati  "  is  the  fem- 
inine of  "  ar-vat,"  nom.  "  aiva,"  gen.  "  arvatas."  A"! 

1 "  Po;  ch6  1'altro  mattin  la  bella  Aurora 

L'aer  seren  fe  bianco  e  rosso  e  giallo."  —  Ariosto,  xxi:i.  52. 
"  SI,  che  le  bianche  e  le  vermiglie  guance, 
La  dove  io  era,  della  bella  Aurora, 
Per  troppa  etate  divenivan  ranee."  —  Dante,  Purgatorio,  iL  7. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  133 

"  vidva'n,"  knowing,  forms  its  feminine  "  vidiishi  " 
("  &ikitva'n,"  "  &ikitushi  "),  so  "  arva(w)  "  leads  to 
"  arushi,"  a  form  which  fully  explains  the  formation  of 
the  feminine  of  the  past  participle  in  Greek.  This  may 
be  shown  by  the  following  equation  :  vidva'n  :  vidushi= 
etSws  :  ddvla.  This  feminine  a  arushi  "  is  important  for 
our  purpose,  because  it  throws  new  light  on  the  forma- 
tion of  another  word,  namely,  "arusha,"  a  masculine, 
meaning  bright  or  red,  and  in  the  Veda  a  frequent 
epithet  of  the  sun.  "  Arusha,"  gen.  "  asya,"  follows 
the  weak  declension,  and  "  arushi "  is  by  Sanskrit 
grammarians  considered  as  the  regular  feminine  of 
"  arusha."  "  Arusha,"  as  compared  with  the  parti- 
cipial form  "  ar-vas,"  is  formed  like  Sta/cropys,  ou,  instead 
of  StaKTwp,  opos;  like  Latin  vasum,  i,  instead  of  vas, 
vasis;  like  Prakrit  "  &aranteshu,"  instead  of  "  &arat- 
su ;  "  like  Modern  Greek  -f/  VVKTOL,  instead  of  ^  vv£. 

This  "  arusha,"  as  applied  in  the  Veda  to  bright  and 
solar  deities,  brings  us  as  near  to  the  Greek  Eros  as 
we  can  expect.  It  is  used  in  the  sense  of  bright :  — 

Rv.  VII.  75,  6.  "  The  red  bright  horses  are  seen 
brino-ing  to  us  the  brilliant  Dawn." 

O        O 

The  horses 1  of  Indra,  of  Agni,  of  Brihaspati,  as  quick 
as  the  wind,  and  as  bright  as  suns,  who  lick  the  udder 
of  the  dark  cow,  the  Night,  are  called  "  arusha ;  "  the 
smoke  which  rises  from  the  burning  sun  at  daybreak, 
the  limbs  of  the  Sun  with  which  he  climbs  the  sky,  the 
thunderbolt  which  Indra  throws,  the  fire  which  is  seen 
by  day  and  by  night,  all  are  called  "  arusha."  "  He 
who  fills  heaven  and  earth  with  light,  who  runs  across 


1  "  Arusha,  si  voisin  d'Aruwa  (cocher  du  soleil),  et  d'Arus  (le  soleil),  st 
retrouve  en  Zend  sous  la  forme  d'Aurusha  (dont  Anquetil  fait  Eorosh, 
1'oiseau).  les  che\  aux  qui  trament  Serosh."  Burnouf,  Bhagavata-Purana 
p.  LXXIX. 


J34  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

the  darkness  along  the  sky,  who  is  seen  aniuiig  the 
black  cows  of  the  night,"  he  is  called  "  arusha"  or  the 
bright  hero  ("arusho  vrisha"). 

But  this  bright  solar  hero,  whether  Agni1  or  Surya, 
is  in  the  Veda,  as  in  Greek  mythology,  represented  'as 
a  child. 

Rv.  III.  1,  4.  "  The  Seven  Sisters  have  nursed  him, 
the  joyful,  the  white  one,  as  he  was  born,  the  red  one 
(Arusha),  by  growth  ;  the  horses  came  as  to  a  foal  that 
is  born ;  the  gods  brought  up  Agni  when  he  was 
born." 

"  Arusha  "  is  applied  to  the  young  sun  in  the  Veda ; 
the  sun  who  drives  away  the  dark  night,  and  sends  his 
first  ray  to  awaken  the  world  :  — 

Rv.  VII.  71,  1.  "  Night  goes  away  from  her  sister, 
the  Dawn ;  the  dark  one  opens  the  path  for  Arusha." 

Though  in  some  of  his  names  there  is  an  uninten- 
tional allusion  to  his  animal  character,  he  soon  takes  a 
purely  human  form.  He  is  called  "  Nri&akshas  "  (III. 
15,  3),  "  having  the  eyes  of  a  man  ;  '\  and  even  his 
wings,  as  Grimm  2  will  be  glad  to  learn,  have  begun 
to  grow  in  the  Veda,  where  once,  at  least  (V.  47,  3), 
he  is  called  "ArushaA  suparwas,"  "  the  bright  sun  with 
beautiful  wings  :  "  — 

Tov  8'  TJTOt  6vr\ro\  ijsv  'Epiara  KaXoOffi  TOTr)i>OK> 
'Audcaroi  8e  Uripiara,  Sia.  nrepiyjiVTOp  dvaymjv. 

As  Eros  is  the  child  of  Zeus,  Arusha  is  called  th« 
child  of  Dyaus  ("  Diva^  sisus  "). 

Rv.  IV.  15,  6.  "  Him,  the  god  Agni,  they  adorn 
and  purify  every  day .  like  a  strong  horse,  —  like  Ar- 
usha (the  bright  sun),  the  child  of  Dyaus  (heaven)." 

1  How  the  god  Kama  was  grafted  on  Agni,  may  be  seen  from  later  pas- 
sages in  the  Atharva-veda,  the  Taittiriya-sanhita,  and  some  of  the  Grihyir 
B&tras. —  Indische  Studien,  vol.  v.  pp.  224-226. 

a  See  Jacob  Grimm's  Essay  on  the  God  of  Love. 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  135 

Rv.  VI.  49,  2.  "  Let  us  worship  Agni,  the  child  of 
Dyaus,  the  son  of  strength,  Arusha,  the  bright  light  of 
the  sacrifice." 

This  deity  is  the  first  of  the  gods,  for  he  comes  (V. 
1,  5)  "  agre  ahnam,"  "  at  the  point  of  the  days  ;  " 
"  ushasam  agre  "  (VII.  8,  1 ;  X.  45,  5)  "  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  dawns ;  "  but  in  one  passage  two  daugh- 
ters are  ascribed  to  him,  different  in  appearance,  —  the 
one  decked  with  the  stars,  the  other  brilliant  by  the 
light  of  the  sun,  —  Day  and  Night,  who  are  elsewhere 
called  the  daughters  of  the  Sun.  As  the  god  of  love, 
in  the  Greek  sense  of  the  word,  Arusha  does  not  oc- 
cur, neither  has  love,  as  a  mere  feeling,  been  deified  in 
the  Veda  under  any  name.  Kama,  who  is  the  god  of 
love  in  the  later  Sanskrit,  never  occurs  in  the  Veda 
with  personal  or  divine  attributes,  except  in  one  pas- 
sage of  the  tenth  book,  and  here  love  is  rather  repre- 
sented as  a  power  of  creation  than  as  a  personal  being. 
But  there  is  one  other  passage  in  the  Veda,  where 
"  Kama,"  love,  is  clearly  applied  to  the  rising  sun.  The 
whole  hymn  (II.  38,  6)  is  addressed  to  Savitar,  the 
sun.  It  is  said,  "  He  rises  as  a  mighty  flame,  —  he 
stretches  out  his  wide  arms,  —  he  is  even  like  the  wind. 
When  he  stops  his  horses,  all  activity  ceases,  and  the 
night  follows  in  his  track.  But  before  the  Night 
has  half  finished  her  weaving,  the  sun  rises  again. 
Then  Agni  goes  to  all  men  and  to  all  houses  ;  his 
light  is  powerful,  and  his  mother,  the  Dawn,  gives 
him  the  best  share,  the  first  worship  among  men.' 
Then  the  poet  goes  on  :  — 

••  He  came  back  with  wide  strides,  longing  for  vic- 
tory ;  the  love  of  all  men  came  near.  The  eternal  ap- 
proached, leaving  the  work  (of  Night)  half-done  ;  he 
followed  the  command  of  the  heavenly  Savitar." 


136  COMPAKATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

"  The  love  of  all  men,"  may  mean  he  who  is  loved 
by  all  men,  or  who  grants  their  wishes  to  all  men  ;  yet 
I  do  not  ihink  it  is  hy  accident  that  "Kama,"  love,  is 
thus  applied  to  the  rising  sun. 

Even  in  the  latest  traditions  of  the  Puranas,  the 
original  solar  character  of  the  god  of  love,  the  beloved 
of  the  Dawn,  was  not  quite  forgotten.  For  we  find 
that  one  of  the  names  given  to  the  son  of  Kama,  to 
Aniruddha,  the  irresistible  (dviKaros  /xaxav),is  Ushapati, 
the  lord  of  the  Dawn. 

If  we  place  clearly  before  our  mind  all  the  ideas  and 
allusions  which  have  clustered  round  the  names  of  "Ar- 
vat "  and  "Arusha  "  in  the  Veda,  the  various  myths  told 
of  Eros,  which  at  first  seem  so  contradictory,  become 
perfectly  intelligible.  He  is  in  Hesiod  the  oldest  of  the 
gods,  born  when  there  exist  as  yet  only  Chaos  and  Earth. 
Here  we  have  "  Arusha  born  at  the  beginning  of  all 
the  days."  He  is  the  youngest  of  the  gods,  the  son  of 
Zeus,  the  friend  of  the  Charites,  also  the  son  of  the 
chief  Charis,  Aphrodite,  in  whom  we  can  hardly  fail  to 
discover  a  female  Eros  (an  "  Usha "  instead  of  an 
"Agni  aushasya  ").  Every  one  of  these  myths  finds  its 
key  in  the  Veda.  Eros  or  Arusha  is  the  rising  sun, 
and  hence  the  child,  the  son  of  Dyaus  ;  he  yokes  the 
Hants,  and  is,  if  not  the  son,1  at  least  the  beloved  of 
the  dawn.  Besides,  in  Greek  mythology  also,  Eros 
has  many  fathers  and  many  mothers  ;  and  one  j  air  of 
parents  given  him  by  Sappho,  Heaven  and  Earth, 
is  identical  with  his  Vaidik  parents,  Dyaus  and  Ida".2 

1  Cf.    Maxim.   Tyr,     XXIV.   rbv  "Epwra    tf>7jeriv    >}    Aiort'iua  rw    ~S.iaKpa.rei    ov 

naiSa,  <iXX'  dK6\o'>6cv  T>)J  'Ar/ipoJmjs,  «al  OepdirovTa  flvat.    See  Preller,  Greek 
Mythology,  p.  238. 

2  The  objections  raised  by  Professor  Curtius  ( GrtmcMge  der    Griechi* 
chen  Etymologie,  p.  114)  against  the  common  origin  of  «pu>?  and  "  arvat " 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.          137 

India,  however,  is  not  Greece ;    and  though  we  may 
trace  the  germs  and  roots  of  Greek  words  and  Greek 

deserve  careful  attention.  "  How  can  we  separate  "Epws,"  he  says,  "  from 
epo?,  epa/uoi,  epa<i»,  eparos,  epa-reivo?,  and  other  words,  all  of  ancient  date,  an<? 
even  Homeric?  They  cannot  have  sprung  from  the  name  efpws,  and  if  w« 
suppose  that  they  sprang  from  the  same  root  «r,  to  which  we  have  to  assign 
the  sense  of  going,  running,  striving,  epo?  would  mean  striving,  or  desire» 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  prove  that  the  cognate  "Epu?  started  from  the 
mean  ing  of  horse,  or  solar  horse,  which  in  Sanskrit  was  assigned  to  '  arvat.'" 
Professor  Curtius  then  proceeds  to  urge  the  same  objections  against  the  ety- 
mology of  Charis:  "'For  what  shall  we  do,"  he  says,  "with  xaP«>  xa'Pa>» 
X<ipi'<foiu<u,  xapi'eis?  "  With  regard  to  Charis,  I  may  refer  to  the  explanations 
which  I  have  given  in  the  Second  Series  of  my  Lectures,  page  368,  where 
I  hope  I  have  proved  that  Charis  cannot  be  placed,  as  Professor  Curtius 
proposes,  in  the  same  category  of  deities  as  AeiAib?  or  *ojSos;  arid  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  least  improbable  in  certain  derivatives  of  an  ancient  Aryan 
root  taking  a  mythological  character,  while  others  retain  an  analogous  ap- 
pellative meaning.  From  the  root  "  dyu,"  to  shine,  we  have  Dyaus  and 
Zevi:  but  we  also  have  in  Sanskrit  "diva"  and  "  dina.''  day;  and  in 
Greek  eVJios,  at  noon-day,  SijAoj,  bright.  From  the  root  "  vas"  or  "ush," 
to  glow,  to  burn,  we  have  'E<m'a,  Vesta,  Ushas,  Eos,  Aurora:  but  likewise 
Sanskrit  "usra,"  early,  "  ushna,"  hot;  Latin  uro,  aurum ;  (Jreek  auu>,  o5- 
pu»',  rjpi.  Unless  we  suppose  that  roots,  after  having  given  rise  to  a  single 
mythological  name,  were  struck  by  instantaneous  sterility,  or  that  Greek 
mythological  names  can  only  be  derived  from  roots  actually  employed  in 
that  language,  what  we  observe  in  the  case  of  Eros  and  Charis  is  the  nat- 
ural and  almost  inevitable  result  of  the  growth  of  language  and  myth, 
such  as  we  now  understand  it.  Greek  scholars  have  asked,  "  how  can 
we  separate  ep/j.r)vcv<a  from  'EPM^S  (Grundziiye,  p.  312),  or  epiwvtiv  from 
'Epuw's  (Welcker)?"  Yet  few  have  questioned  Kuhn's  etymology  of 
'Epurj?  and  'Epiwv*,  whatever  difference  of  opinion  may  prevail  as  to  the 
exact  process  by  which  these  two  deities  came  to  be  what  they  are.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  I  cannot  protest  too  strongly  against  the  opinion  which 
has  been  ascribed  to  me,  that  the  Greeks  were  in  any  way  conscious  of  the 
secondary  or  idiomatic  meaning  which  "  arvat  "  and  "  harit,"  had  assumed 
in  India.  In  India  both  "arvat,"  running,  and  "harit,"  bright,  became 
recognized  names  for  horse.  As  "  arvat"  was  also  applied  to  the  sun,  the 
heavenly  runner,  the  conception  of  the  sun  as  a  horse  became  almost  inev- 
itable, and  required  no  poetical  effort  on  the  part  of  people  speaking  San- 
skrit. Nothing  of  the  kind  happened  in  Greek.  In  Greek  «p<oy  was  never 
used  as  an  appellative  in  the  sense  of  horse,  as  little  as  £ev«  was  used,  ex- 
cept in  later  times,  to  signify  the  material  sky.  But  unless  we  are  prepared 
to  look  upon  Eros,  "  the  oldest  of  the  Greek  gods,"  as  a  mere  abstraction, 
as,  in  fact,  a  kind  of  Cupid,  I  thought,  and  I  still  think,  that  we  have  to 
tdmit  among  the  earliest  worshippers  of  Eros,  even  on  Greek  soil,  a  fainl 


1<58  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

ideas  to  the  rich  soil  of  India,  the  full  flower  of  Aryan 
language,  of  Aryan  poetry  and  mythology,  belongs  to 
Hellas,  where  Plato  has  told  us  what  Eros  is,  and 
where  Sophokles  sang  his  — 

'Eptos  drucarc  /na^af, 
'Epwt,  os  ev  KTTjjuao-i  niirrevty 

6?  ev  na.\aica.is  irapctai? 

vfaviSos  evvi>xtvfis' 

$oiTas  &'  ti7rep7roPTios»  ev  r' 

dypovojttoi?  auXaif 

KOLL  <r  OUT'  ii6a.va.riav  $ufi/ios  ouficc's, 

oufl"  apepiiav  «ir"  ai'- 

BpiaTTtav'  o  &'  f\<av  ij.ffiijt>tv.^ 

recollection  of  the  ancient  Aryan  mythology  in  which  the  same  word  as 
Eros  had  been  applied  to  the  sun,  and  especially  the  rising  sun.  All  the 
rest  is  simple  and  easy.  The  root  ar,  no  doubt,  had  the  sense  of  running  or 
rushing,  and  might  have  yielded,  therefore,  names  expressive  of  quick  mo- 
tion as  well  as  of  strong  desire.  Not  even-  shoot,  however,  that  springs 
from  such  a  seed,  lives  on,  when  transferred  to  a  different  soil.  "  Eros" 
might  have  been  the  name  for  horse  in  Greece  as  "  arvat  "  was  in  India, 
but  it  was  not:  "arvat,"  or  some  other  derivative  like  "  artha,"  might  have 
expressed  desire  in  Sanskrit  as  it  did  in  Greek,  but  this,  too,  was  not  the 
case.  Why  certain  words  die,  and  others  live  on,  why  certain  meanings 
of  words  become  prominent  so  as  to  cause  the  absorption  of  all  other  mean- 
ings, we  have  no  chance  of  explaining.  We  must  take  the  work  of  lan- 
guage as  we  find  it,  and  in  disentangling  the  curious  skein,  we  must  not 
expect  to  find  one  continuous  thread,  but  rest  satisfied  if  we  can  separate 
the  broken  ends,  and  place  them  side  by  side  in  something  like  an  intelligi- 
ble order.  Greek  mythology  was  not  borrowed  from  Vrdic  mythology  any 
more  than  Greek  words  were  taken  from  a  Sanskrit  dictionary.  This  being 
once  understood  and  generally  admitted,  offense  should  not  be  taken  if 
here  and  there  a  Veilic  deity  or  a  Sanskrit  word  is  called  a  prototype.  The 
expression,  I  know,  is  not  quite  correct,  and  cannot  be  defended,  except  on 
the  plea  that  almost  everybody  knows  what  is  meant  by  it.  The  Greek 
Charites  are  certainly  not  a  mere  modification  of  the  Vedic  Haritas,  nor 
the  Greek  Kros  of  the  Vedic  Arvat.  There  was  no  recollection  of  an  equine 
character  in  the  Greek  Kros  or  the  Charites,  just  as,  from  a  purely  Greek 
"point  of  view,  no  traces  of  a  canine  character  could  be  discovered  in  'EXevij 
=Sarama.  or  'Ep/uetas=Saranieya.  Arvat  and  Eros  are  radii  starting  from 
a  common  central  thought,  and  the  angle  of  the  Vedic  radius  is  less  obtusn 
than  that  of  the  Greek.  This  is  all  that  could  be  meant,  and  I  believe  this 
is  the  sense  in  which  my  words  have  been  understood  by  the  majority  of 
tty  readers. 

l  Antigone,  ed.  Dindorf,  Oxford  1859,  v.  781. 


COMPARATIVE   MYTHOLOGY.  139 

If  Hegel  calls  the  discover)1  of  the  common  origin 
of  Greek  and  Sanskrit  the  discovery  of  a  new  world, 
the  same  may  be  said  with  regard  to  the  common  origin 
of  Greek  and  Sanskrit  mythology.  The  discovery  is 
made,  and  the  science  of  comparative  mythology  will 
soon  rise  to  the  same  importance  as  that  of  comparative 
philology.  I  have  here  explained  but  a  fewvnyths, 
but  they  all  belong  to  one  small  cycle,  and  many 
more  names  might  have  been  added.  I  may  refer 
those  who  take  an  interest  in  this  geology  of  language 
to  the  "Journal  of  Comparative  Philology,"  published 
by  my  learned  friend,  Dr.  Kuhn,  at  Berlin,  who,  in 
his  periodical,  has  very  properly  admitted  comparative 
mythology  as  an  integral  part  of  comparative  phi- 
lology, and  who  has  himself  discovered  some  of  the 
most  striking  parallelisms  between  the  traditions  of 
the  Veda  and  the  mythological  names  of  other  Aryan 
nations.  The  very  "  Hippokentaurs  and  the  Chimasra, 
the  Gorgons  and  Pegasos,  and  other  monstrous  crea- 
tures," have  apparently  been  set  right ;  and  though  I 
differ  from  Dr.  Kuhn  on  several  points,  and  more  par- 
ticularly with  regard  to  the  elementary  character  of 
the  gods,  which  he,  like  Lauer,  the  lamented  author  of 
the  "  System  of  Greek  Mythology,"  seems  to  me  to 
connect  too  exclusively  with  the  fleeting  phenomena 
of  clouds,  and  storms,  and  thunder,  while  I  believe 
their  original  conception  to  have  been  almost  always 
solar,  yet  there  is  much  to  be  learnt  from  both.  Much, 
no  doubt,  remains  to  be  done,  and  even  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Veda,  the  whole  of  Greek  mythology  will 
never  be  deciphered  and  translated.  But  can  this  be 
urged  as  an  objection  ?  There  are  many  Greek  words 
of  which  we  cannot  find  a  satisfactory  etymology,  evo.n 


140  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

by  the  help  of  Sanskrit.  Are  we  therefore  to  say  thai 
the  whole  Greek  language  has  no  etymological  or- 
ganization ?  If  we  find  a  rational  principle  in  the  for- 
mation of  but  a  small  portion  of  Greek. words,  we  are 
justified  in  inferring  that  the  same  principle  which 
manifests  itself  in  part,  governed  the  organic  growth 
of  the  whole;  and  though  we  cannot  explain  the  ety- 
mological origin  of  all  words,  we  should  never  say  that 
language  had  no  etymological  origin,  or  that  otymology 
"  treats  of  a  past  which  was  never  present."  That  the 
later  Greeks,  such  as  Homer  and  Hesiod,  ignored  the 
origin  and  purport  of  their  myths,  I  fully  admit,  but 
they  equally  ignored  the  origin  and  purport  of  their 
words.  What  applies  to  etymology,  therefore,  ap- 
plies with  equal  force  to  mythology.  It  has  been 
proved  by  comparative  philology  that  there  is  nothing 
irregular  in  language,  and  what  was  formerly  con- 
sidered as  irregular  in  declension  and  conjugation  is 
now  recognized  as  the  most  regular  and  primitive 
stratum  in  the  formation  of  grammar.  The  same,  we 
hope,  may  be  accomplished  in  mythology,  and  instead 
of  deriving  it,  as  heretofore,  "ab  ingenii  humani  im- 
becillitate  et  a  dictionis  egestate,"  it  will  obtain  its 
truer  solution,  "  ab  ingenii  humani  sapientia  et  a  dic- 
tionis abundantia."  Mythology  is  only  a  dialect,  an 
Ancient  form  of  language.  Mythology,  though  chiefly 
concerned  with  nature,  and  here  again  mostly  with  those 
manifestations  which  bear  the  character  of  law,  order, 
power,  and  wisdom  impressed  on  them,  was  applicable 
to  all  things.  Nothing  is  excluded  from  mythological 
expression  ;  neither  morals  nor  philosophy,  neither  his- 
tory nor  religion,  have  escaped  the  spell  of  that  ancient 
sibyl.  But  mythology  is  neither  philosophy,  nor  his- 


COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY.  141 

toiy,  nor  religion,  nor  ethics.  It  is,  if  we  may  use  a 
scholastic  expression,  a  quale,  no^  a  quid — something 
formal,  not  something  substantial,  and,  like  poetry, 
sculpture,  and  painting,  applicable  to  nearly  all  that 
the  ancient  world  could  admire  or  adore. 

April,  1866. 


XVII. 
GREEK    MYTHOLOGY.' 


IT  does  not  happen  very  often  that  we  take  up  a 
German  book  of  more  than  eight  hundred  pages,  closely 
printed,  and  bristling  with  notes  and  quotations,  and 
feel  unwilling  to  put  it  down  again  before  having  fin- 
ished the  whole  of  it.  However,  this  is  what  has  hap- 
pened to  us,  and  will  happen  to  many  a  reader  of  Pro- 
fessor Welcker's  "  Greek  Mythology,"  if  he  is  capable 
of  enterino;  with  a  real  and  human  interest  into  the  life, 

~ 

and  thoughts,  and  feelings  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  and 
more  particularly  into  the  spirit  of  their  religion,  their 
worship,  and  sacred  traditions.  To  those  who  require 
any  preliminary  information  respecting  the  author,  we 
may  say,  first  of  all,  that  Welcker  is  a  very  old  man, 
a  man  belonging  almost  to  an  age  gone  by,  one  of  the 
few  men  remaining  of  the  heroic  age  of  German  schol- 
arship. The  present  generation,  a  race  not  quite  con- 
temptible in  itself,  looks  up  to  him  as  the  Greeks  looked 
up  to  Nestor.  He  knew  old  Voss,  the  translator  of 
Homer,  when  he  was  a  young  man  fighting  the  battle 
of  rational  mythology  against  the  symbolic  school  of 
Creuzer.  He  was  the  friend  of  Zoe'ga.  He  speaks  of 

i  GriecMsche  Gotterlehre.  Von  F.  G.  Welcker.  E-ster  Band.  Gottin- 
<en,  1857. 


GREEK  MYTHOLOGY.  143 

Buttmann,  of  Lexilogus  Buttmann,  as  a  scholar  who 
had  felt  the  influence  of  his  teaching ;  and  he  looks 
upon  Otfried  Miiller,  the  Dorian  Miiller,  as  belonging 
originally  to  his  school,  though  afterwards  carrying  out 
the  views  of  his  master  in  an  independent,  and  some- 
times too  independent  spirit.  Welcker  has  been  lectur- 
ing and  writing  on  mythology  for  many  years,  and  he 
finds,  not  without  satisfaction,  that  many  of  the  views 
which  he  first  propounded  in  his  lectures,  lectures  open 
to  any  one  who  liked  to  listen,  have  become  current, 
and,  as  it  were,  public  propert}',  long  before  his  book 
was  published.  He  is  not  a  man  to  put  forward  any 
claims  of  priority ;  and  if  he  dwells  at  all  on  the  sub- 
ject, it  is  rather  in  self-defense.  He  wishes  to  remind 
his  readers  that  if  he  propounds  certain  views  with  the 
warmth  of  a  discoverer,  if  he  defends  them  strenuously 
against  all  possible  objections,  it  is  because  he  has  been 
accustomed  to  do  so  for  years,  and  because  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  do  so,  at  the  time  when  he  first 
elaborated  his  system,  and  explained  it  in  his  lectures. 
Welcker's  "  Mythology  "  has  been  expected  for  many 
years.  It  has  been  discussed  long  before  it  appeared. 
"  It  is  to  my  great  regret,  and  certainly  without  my 
fault,"  the  author  says,  "  that  so  great  expectations 
have  been  raised."  However,  if  the  expectations  have 
been  great  among  the  professors  in  Germany,  they  will 
admit  that  they  have  not  been  disappointed,  and  that 
the  promise  given  by  young  Welcker  has  been  fulfilled 
by  the  veteran. 

"  The  Science  of  the  Greek  Gods "  ("  die  Grie- 
chische  Gotterlehre  "),  which  is  the  title  of  the  book, 
though  it  carries  the  reader  along  most  rapidly,  exciting 
curiosity  at  every  page,  and  opening  nsw  views  in  every 


144  GREEK  MYTHOLOGY. 

chapter,  is  nevertheless  a  book  which  requires  more 
than  one  perusal.  It  may  be  read,  witli  the  exception 
of  some  less  finished  chapters,  for  pleasure  ;  but  it  de- 
serves to  be  studied,  to  be  thought  over,  examined,  and 
criticized,  and  it  is  then  only  that  its  real  value  is  dis- 
covered. There  have  been  many  books  published 
lately  on  mythology.  Preljer,  Gerhard,  Schelling, 
Maury,  have  followed  each  other  in  rapid  succession. 
Preller's  "  Greek  Mythology  "  is  a  useful  and  careful 
compendium.  Gerhard's  "  Greek  Mythology "  is  a 
storehouse,  only  sometimes  rather  a  labyrinth,  of  my- 
thological lore.  On  Schelling's  "  Philosophy  of  My- 
thology," published  in  his  posthumous  works,  we  hardly 
dare  to  pronounce  an  opinion.  And  yet,  with  all  due 
respect  for  his  great  name,  with  a  sincere  appreciation 
of  some  deep  thoughts  on  the  subject  of  mythology 
too,  and  more  particularly  with  a  full  acknowledgment 
of  his  merits  in  having  pointed  out  more  strongly  than 
anybody  else  the  inevitable  character  of  mythological 
thought  and  language  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word, 
we  must  say,  as  critics,  that  his  facts  and  theories  defy 
all  rules  of  sound  scholarship,  and  that  his  language  is 
so  diffuse  and  vague,  as  to  be  unworthy  of  the  century 
we  live  in.  To  one  who  knows  how  powerful  and  im- 
portant an  influence  Schelling's  mind  exercised  on  Ger- 
many at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  it  is  hard  to  say 
this.  But  if  we  could  not  read  his  posthumous  vol- 
umes without  sadness,  and  without  a  strong  feeling  of 
the  mortality  of  all  human  knowledge,  we  cannot  men- 
tion them,  when  they  must  be  mentioned,  without  ex- 
pressing our  conviction  that  though  they  are  interesting 
on  account  of  their  author,  they  are  disappointing  in 
every  other  respect.  Maury's  "  Histoire  dcs  Religions 


GREEK  MYTHOLOGY.  145 

de  la  Gresce  Antique  "  is,  like  all  the  works  of  that  in- 
dustrious writer,  lucid  and  pleasing.  It  does  not  pro- 
fess to  add  many  results  of  independent  research  to 
what  was  known  before  on  the  various  subjects  on 
which  he  writes.  Thus  the  gifted  author  escapes  criti- 
cism, and  only  carries  away  the  thanks  of  all  who  read 
his  careful  manuals. 

What  distinguishes  Welcker  from  all  his  predecessors 
is  this,  that  with  him  mythology  is  not  only  a  collec- 
tion of  fables,  to  be  described,  sifted,  and  arranged,  but 
a  problem  to  be  solved,  and  a  problem  as  important  as 
any  in  the  history  of  the  world.  His  whole  heart  is  in 
his  work.  He  wants  to  know,  and  wants  to  explain 
what  mythology  means,  how  such  a  thing  as  Greek 
mythology  could  ever  have  existed.  It  is  the  origin  of 
every  god  which  he  tries  to  discover,  leaving  every- 
thing else  to  flow  naturally  from  the  source  once  opened 
and  cleared. 

A  second  feature,  which  is  peculiar  to  his  treatment 
of  mythology,  is  that  he  never  looks  on  the  Greek 
fables  as  a  system.  There  were  myths  before  there 
was  a  mythology,  and  it  is  in  this,  their  original  and 
unsystematic  form  alone,  that  we  may  hope  to  dis- 
cover the  genuine  and  primitive  meaning  of  every 
myth. 

A  third  distinguishing  feature  of  Welcker's  book 
consists  in  the  many  things  he  leaves  out.  If  a  myth 
nad  once  been  started,  poets,  artists,  philosophers,  and 
old  women  might  do  with  it  whatever  they  pleased. 
If  there  was  once  a  Herakles  travelling  all  over  the 

o 

earth,  killing  monsters,  punishing  wickedness,  and  do- 
ing what  no  one  else  could  do,  the  natural  result  would 

be  that,  in  every  town  and  village,  whatever  no   one 
vov  ii.  10 


146  GREEK  MYTHOLOGY. 

else  could  have  done  would  be  ascribed  to  Herakles. 
The  little  stories  invented  to  account  for  all  these  Her- 
aklean  doings  may  be  very  interesting  to  the  people  of 
the  village,  but  they  have  as  little  right  to  a  place  in 
Greek  mythology  as  the  Swiss  legends  of  the  Devil's 
bridges  have  to  a  place  in  a  work  on  Swiss  theology  or 
history.  To  be  able  to  distinguish  between  what  is  es- 
sential and  what  is  not,  requires  a  peculiar  talent,  and 
Professor  Welcker  possesses  it. 

A  fourth  point  which  is  of  characteristic  importance 
in  Welcker's  manner  of  handling  Greek  mythology,  is 
the  skill  with  which  he  takes  every  single  myth  to 
pieces.  When  he  treats  of  Apollo,  he  does  not  treat  of 
him  as  one  person,  beginning  with  his  birth,  detailing 
his  various  exploits,  accounting  for  his  numerous  epi- 
thets, and  removing  the  contradictory  character  of 
many  of  his  good  or  bad  qualities.  The  birth  of  the 
god  is  one  myth,  his  association  with  a  twin  sister 
another,  his  quarrel  with  Hermes  a  third,  —  each  intel- 
ligible in  itself,  though  perplexing  when  gathered  up 
into  one  large  web  of  Apollonic  theology. 

Nowhere,  again,  have  we  seen  the  original  character 
of  the  worship  of  Zeus,  as  the  God,  or,  as  he  is  called 
in  later  times,  as  the  Father  of  the  gods,  as  the  God  of 
gods,  drawn  with  so  sure  and  powerful  a  hand  as  in 
Welcker's  "  Mythology."  When  we  ascend  with  him 
to  the  most  distant  heights  of  Greek  history  the  idea  of 
God,  as  the  supreme  Being,  stands  before  us  as  a  simple 
fact.  Next  to  this  adoration  of  One  God,  the  father  of 
heaven,  the  father  of  men,  we  find  in  Greece  a  wor- 
ship of  nature.  The  powers  of  nature,  originally  wor- 
shipped as  such,  were  afterwards  changed  into  a  family 
of  gods,  of  which  Zeus  became  the  king  and  iather. 


GREEK   MYTHOLOGY.  147 

This  third  phase  is  what  is  generally  called  Greek  my- 
thology ;  but  it  was  preceded  in  time,  or  at  least  ren- 
dered possible  in  thought,  by  the  two  prior  conceptions, 
a  belief  in  a  supreme  God,  and  a  worship  of  the  powers 
of  nature.  The  Greek  religions,  says  Welcker,  if  they 
are  analyzed  and  reduced  to  their  original  form,  are  far 
more  simple  than  we  think.  It  is  so  in  all  great  things. 
And  the  better  we  are  acquainted  with  the  variety  and 
complications  of  all  that  has  grown  up  around  them,  the 
more  we  feel  surprised  at  the  smallness  of  the  first 
seeds,  the  simplicity  of  the  fundamental  ideas.  The 
divine  character  of  Zeus,  as  distinct  from  his  mytholog- 
ical character,  is  most  carefully  brought  out  by  Welc- 
ker. He  avails  himself  of  all  the  discoveries  of  com- 
parative philology  in  order  to  show  more  clearly  how 
the  same  idea  which  found  expression  in  the  ancient 
religions  of  the  Brahmans,  the  Slaves,  and  the  Ger- 
mans, had  been  preserved  under  the  same  simple, 
clear,  and  sublime  name  by  the  original  settlers  of 
Hellas.  We  are  not  inclined  to  be  too  critical  when 
we  meet  with  a  classical  scholar  who  avails  himself  of 
the  works  of  Sanskrit  philologists.  It  does  him  credit 
if  he  only  acknowledges  that  the  beginnings  of  Greek 
language,  Greek  thought  and  tradition,  lie  beyond  the 
horizon  of  the  so-called  classical  world.  It  is  surprising 
to  find,  even  at  the  present  day,  men  of  the  highest 
attainments  in  Greek  and  Latin  scholarship,  intention- 
ally shutting  their  eyes  to  what  they  know  to  be  the 
light  of  a  new  day.  Unwilling  to  study  a  new  subject, 
and  unable  to  confess  their  ignorance  on  any  subject, 
they  try  to  dispose  of  the  works  of  a  Humboldt,  Bopp, 
or  Bunsen,  by  pointing  out  a  few  mistakes,  perhaps  a 
wrong  accent  or  a  false  quantity,  —  which  "  any 


143  GREEK  MYTHOLOGY. 

schoolboy  would  be  ashamed  of."  They  might  as  well 
scoff  at  Wyld's  Globe  because  it  has  not  the  accuracy 
of  an  Ordnance  survey.  So,  if  we  find  in  a  work  like 
Welcker's  little  slips,  such  as  "  devas,"  sky,  instead  of 
god,  "dyavi,"  a  Sanskrit  dative,  instead  of  "dive," 
the  dative,  or  "  dyavi,"  the  locative,  we  just  mark 
them  on  the  margin,  but  we  do  not  crow  over  them 
like  schoolmasters,  or  rather  schoolboys.  We  should 
sometimes  like  to  ask  a  question  :  for  instance,  how  Pro- 
fessor Welcker  could  prove  that  the  German  word  God 
has  the  same  meaning  as  good?  He  quotes  Grimm's 
"  History  of  the  German  Language,"  p.  571,  in  sup- 
port of  this  assertion,  but  we  have  looked  in  vain  for 
any  passage  where  Grimm  gives  up  his  former  opinion, 
that  the  two  words  Cf-od  and  good,  run  parallel  in  all 
the  Teutonic  dialects,  but  never  converge  towards  a 
common  origin.  However,  Welcker's  example,  we 
hope,  will  have  its  good  effect  among  classical  scholars. 
What  could  have  been  a  greater  triumph  for  all  who 
take  an  interest  in  comparative  philology  and  in  a  more 
comprehensive  study  of  ancient  humanity,  than  to  find 
in  a  work  on  Greek  mythology,  written  by  one  of  the 
most  famous  classical  scholars,  the  fundamental  chapter, 
the  chapter  containing  the  key  to  the  whole  system, 
headed,  "  The  Vedas  ?  " 

But  even  Welcker  is  not  without  his  backslidino-s. 
In  some  parts  of  his  work,  and  particularly  in  his  chap- 
ter on  Zeus,  he  admits  implicitly  the  whole  argument 
of  comparative  mythology.  He  admits  that  the  first 
beginnings  of  Zeus,  the  God  of  gods,  must  be  studied 
in  the  ancient  songs  of  the  Veda,  and  in  the  ancient 
traditions  of  the  chief  members  of  the  Aryan  family. 
But  afterwai-da  he  would  like  to  make  his  reserves. 


GREEK   MYTHOLOGY.  149 

He  has  been  studying  the  Greek  gods  all  his  life,  and 
the  names  and  natures  of  many  of  them  had  become 
clear  and  intelligible  to  him  without  the  help  of  San- 
skrit or  the  Veda.  Why  should  they  be  handed  over 
to  the  Aryan  crucible  ?  This  is  a  natural  feeling.  It 
is  the  same  in  Greek  etymology.  If  we  can  fully  ex- 
plain a  Greek  word  from  the  resources  of  the  Greek 
language,  why  should  we  go  beyond  ?  And  yet  it 
cannot  be  avoided.  Some  of  the  most  plausible  Greek 
etymologies  have  had  to  give  way  before  the  most 
unlikely,  and  yet  irrefragable  derivations  from  San- 
skrit. 

Many  a  Greek  scholar  may  very  naturally  say,  why, 
if  we  can  derive  0eo's  from  $e'eir,  or  from  nOlvai,  should 
we  go  out  of  our  way  and  derive  it  from  any  other 
root  ?  1  Any  one  acquainted  with  the  true  principles 
of  etymology  will  answer  this  question  ;  and  Welcker 
himself  would  be  the  first  to  admit,  that,  from  whatever 
source  it  may  be  derived,  it  cannot  be  derived  from 
Oeeiv  or  TiOfvai.  But  the  same  argument  holds  good 
with  regard  to  the  names  of  the  gods.  Zij?,  the  old 
nominative,  of  which  we  have  the  accusative  Zfjv 
("Iliad,"  viii.  206,  formerly  Z^'),  and  Zqv,  of  which 
we  have  the  accusative  Zrji/a,  might  well  have  been  de- 
rived by  former  Greek  etymologists  from  £Jp,  to  live. 
But  Professor  Welcker  knows  that,  after  etymology 
has  once  assumed  an  historical  and  scientific  character, 
a  derivation,  inapplicable  to  the  cognate  forms  of  Ze>'s 
in  Sanskrit,  is  inapplicable  to  the  word  itself  in  Greek. 
There  are,  no  doubt,  words  and  mythological  names 

1  The  latest  defense  of  the  etymology  of  fleo?  as  not  to  be  separated  from 
the  cluster  of  words  which  spring  from  the  root "  div,"  may  be  seen  in  Ascoli, 
Frammtiti  Linguistic!,  Remliconti,  i.  (1864),  pp.  185-200. 


150  GREEK  MYTHOLOGY. 

peculiar  to  Greece,  and  framed  in  Greece  after  the 
separation  of  the  Aryan  tribes.  KponW,  for  instance, 
is  a  Greek  word,  and  a  Greek  idea,  and  Professor 
Welcker  was  right  in  explaining  it  from  Greek  sources 
only.  But  wherever  the  same  mythological  name 
exists  in  Greek  and  Sanskrit,  no  etymology  can  be  ad- 
mitted which  would  be  applicable  to  the  Greek  only, 
without  being  applicable  to  the  Sanskrit  word.  There 
is  no  such  being  as  Kpovos  in  Sanskrit.  Kpoi/os  did  not 
exist  till  long  after  Zeus  in  Greece.  Zeus  was  called  by 
the  Greeks  the  son  of  time.  This  is  a  simple  and  very 
common  form  of  mythological  expression.  It  meant 
originally,  not  that  time  was  the  origin  or  the  source  of 
Zeus,  but  KpovtW  or  Kpoia'S^s  was  used  in  the  sense  of 
"  connected  with  time,  representing  time,  existing 
through  all  time."  Derivatives  in  nov  and  18775  took,  in 
later  times,  the  more  exclusive  meaning  of  patronym- 
ics, but  originally  they  had  a  more  general  qualifying 
sense,  such  as  we  find  still  in  our  own,  originally  Semit- 
ic, expressions,  "  son  of  pride^"  "  sons  of  light,"  "  son 
of  Belial."  KpoviW  is  the  most  frequent  epithet  of  Zeus 
in  Homer ;  it  frequently  stands  by  itself  instead  of  Zeus. 
It  was  a  name  fully  applicable  to  the  supreme  God, 
the  God  of  time,  the  eternal  God.  Who  does  not 
think  of  the  Ancient  of  Days  ?  When  this  ceased  to 
be  understood,  particularly  as  in  the  current  word  for 
time  the  *  had  become  aspirated  (/cpovos  had  become 
Xpovos),  people  asked  themselves  the  question,  why  is 
Zeus  called  KpovioTjs  ?  And  the  natural  and  almost  in- 
evitable answer  was,  because  he  is  the  son,  the  off- 
spring of  a  more  ancient  god,  Kporos.  This  may  be  a 
very  old  myth  in  Greece ;  but  the  misunderstanding 
which  gave  rise  to  it,  could  have  happened  in  Greece 


GREEK   MYTHOLOGY.  151 

only.  We  cannot  expect,  therefore,  a  god  KpoVos  in 
the  Veda.  When  this  myth  of  KpoVos  had  once  been 
started,  it  would  roll  on  irresistibly.  If  Zeus  had  cnce 
a  father  called  Kp<W,  Kpdi/os  must  have  a  wife.  Yet 
it  should  be  remembered  as  a  significant  fact,  that  in 
Homer  Zeus  is  not  yet  called  the  son  of  Rhea,  and  that 
the  name  of  Kpcw'S^s  belongs  originally  to  Zeus  only,  and 
not  to  his  later  brothers,  Poseidon  and  Hades.  Myths 
of  this  kind  can  be  analyzed  by  Greek  mythologists,  as 
all  the  verbs  in  eo>,  ow,  and  <xo  can  be  explained  by- 
Greek  etymologists.  But  most  other  names,  such  as 
Hermes,  Eos,  Eros,  Erinys  require  more  powerful 
tests  ;  and  Professor  Welcker  has  frequently  failed  to 
discover  their  primitive  character,  because  he  was 
satisfied  with  a  merely  Greek  etymology.  He  de- 
rives Erinys,  or  Erinnys,  from  a  verb  epivvvw,  to  be 
angry,  and  gives  to  her  the  original  meaning  of  Con- 
science. Others  have  derived  it  from  the  same  root 
as  Ipts,  strife ;  others  again  from  e'peeiVco,  to  ask.  But 
Erinys  is  too  old  a  god-  for  so  modern  a  conception. 
Erinys  is  the  Vedic  Sarawyii,  the  dawn  ;  and  even  in 
GreeK  she  is  still  called  ^epo^otns,  hovering  in  the 
gloom.  There  is  no  word  expressive  of  any  abstract 
quality,  which  had  not  originally  a  material  meaning ; 
nor  is  there  in  the  ancient  language  of  mythology  any 
abstract  deity  which  does  not  cling  with  its  roots  to  the 
soil  of  nature.  Professor  Welcker  is  not  the  man  to 
whom  we  need  address  this  remark.  He  knows  the 
German  proverb :  — 

"  Kein  Faden  ist  so  fein  gesponnen 
Er  koiiunt  doch  endlich  an  der  Sonnen." 

He  also  knows  how  the  sun  is  frequently  represented 
as  the  avenger  of  dark  crimes.  The  same  idea  is  ex- 


152  GREEK  MYTHOLOGY. 

pressed  by  the  myth  of  Erinys.  Instead  of  our  lifeless 
and  abstract  expression,  "  a  crime  is  sure  to  be  discov- 
ered," the  old  proverbial  and  poetical  expression  was, 
the  Dawn,  the  Erinys,  will  bring  it  to  light.  Crime 
itself  was  called,  in  the  later  mythologizing  language, 
the  daughter  of  Night,  and  her  avenger,  therefore, 
could  only  be  the  Dawn.  Was  not  the  same  Dawn 
called  the  bloodhound  ?  Could  she  not  find  the  track 
of  the  cattle  stolen  from  the  gods  ?  She  had  a  thou- 
sand names  in  ancient  language,  because  she  called 
forth  a  thousand  different  feelings  in  ancient  hearts. 
A  few  only  of  these  names  became  current  appella- 
tives ;  others  remained  as  proper  names,  unintelligible 
in  their  etymological  meaning  and  their  poetical  con- 
ception. The  Greeks  knew  as  little  that  Erinys  meant 
the  Dawn,  as  Shakespeare  knew  the  meaning  of  the 
Weird  Sisters.  Weird,  however,  was  originally  one 
of  the  three  Nornes,  the  German  Parcas.  They  were 
called  "  Vurdh,"  "Verdhandi,"  and  "Skuld,"  —  Past, 
Present,  and  Future  ;  and  the  same  idea  is  expressed 
more  graphically  by  the  thread  that  is  spun,  the  thread 
passing  through  the  finger,  and  the  thread  which  is 
still  on  the  distaff;  or  by  Lachesis  singing  the  past 
(TO.  yeyovoYa),  Klotho  singing  the  present  (Ta  eWa),  and 
Atropos  singing  the  future  (Ta  /xe/XAovra).  The  most 
natural  expression  for  to-morrow  was  the  morn ;  for 
the  future,  the  dawn.  Thus  Sarawyu,  as  one  of  the 
names  of  the  dawn,  became  the  name  of  the  future, 
more  especially  of  the  coming  avenger,  the  inevitable 
light.  Homer  speaks  of  the  Erinys  in  the  plural,  and 
so  do  the  poets  of  the  Veda.  Neither  of  them,  how- 
ever, know  as  yet  their  names  and  parentage.  Hesiod 
calls  them  the  daughters  of  the  Earth,  conceived  of 


GRKKK  MYTHOLOGY.  153 

the  drops  of  the  hlood  of  Ouranos.  Sophokles  claima 
the  same  freedom  as  Hesiod ;  he  calls  them  the  daugh- 
ters of  Skotos.  or  Darkness.  Thus  a  mere  proverb 
would  supply  in  time  a  whole  chapter  of  mythology, 
and  furnish  an  ^Eschylus  and  Plato  with  subjects  for 
the  deepest  thought  and  the  most  powerful  poetry. 

Into  these,  the  earliest  strata  of  mythological  lan- 
guage and  thought,  no  shaft  can  reach  from  the  sur- 
face of  Greece  or  Italy,  and  we  cannot  blame  Pro- 
fessor Welcker  for  having  failed  in  extricating  the  last 
roots  and  fibres  of  every  mythological  name.  He  has 
done  his  work ;  he  has  opened  a  mine,  and,  after 
bringing  to  light  the  treasures  he  was  in  search  of,  he 
has  pointed  out  the  direction  in  which  that  mine  may 
be  worked  with  safety.  If  new  light  is  to  be  thrown 
on  the  most  ancient  and  the  most  interesting  period  in 
the  history  of  the  human  mind,  the  period  in  which 
names  were  given  and  myths  were  formed,  that  light 
must  come  from  the  Vedas ;.  and  we  trust  that  Pro- 
fessor Welcker's  book,  by  its  weak  as  well  as  by  its 
strong  points,  will  impress  on  every  classical  scholar 
what  Otfried  Muller  perceived  many  years  ago,  "  that 
matters  have  come  to  such  a  point  that  classical  philol- 
ogy must  either  resign  altogether  the  historical  under- 
standing of  the  growth  of  language,  as  well  as  all 
etymological  researches  into  the  shape  of  roots  and  the 
organism  of  grammatical  forms,  or  trust  itself  on  these 
points  entirely  to  the  guidance  and  counsel  of  compar- 
ative philology." 

January,  1&58. 


XVIII. 
GREEK  LEGENDS.1 

IF  the  stories  of  the  Greek  gods  and  heroes,  as  told 
by  Mr.  Cox  in  his  "  Tales  from  Greek  Mythology,"  the 
"  Tales  of  Gods  and  Heroes,"  and  the  "  Tales  of  Thebes 
and  Argos,"  do  not  quite  possess  in  the  eyes  of  our  chil- 
dren the  homely  charm  of  Grimm's  "Mahrchen  "  or 
Dasent's  "  Norse  Tales,"  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  at 
heart  our  children  are  all  Goths  or  Northmen,  not  Greeks 
or  Romans;  and  that,  however  far  we  may  be  removed 
from  the  times  which  gave  birth  to  the  stories  of  Dorn- 
roschen,  Sneewittchen,  and  Rumpelstilzchen,  there  is  a 
chord  within  us  that  answers  spontaneously  to  the  pa- 
thos and  humor  of  those  tales,  while  our  sympathy  for 
Hecuba  is  acquired,  and  more  or  less  artificial.  If  the 
choice  were  left  to  children  whether  they  would  rather 
have  a  story  about  the  Norse  trolls  read  out  to  them,  or 
the  tale  of  the  Trojan  War  as  told  by  Mr.  Cox,  we  fully 
believe  —  in  fact  we  know  —  that  they  would  all  clamor 
for  Dasent  or  Grimm.  But  if  children  are  told  that  they 
cannot  always  be  treated  to  trolls  and  fairies,  and  tha 
they  must  learn  something  about  the  Greek  gods  and 
goddesses,  we  likewise  know  that  they  will  rather  listen 
to  Mr.  Cox's  tales  from  Greek  fairyland  than  to  any 
other  book  that  is  used  at  lessons. 

1  A  Manual  of  Mythology,  in  the  Form  of  Question  and  Answer.    By  the 
Rev.  G.  W.  Cox.    London:  Longmans  &  Co.  1867. 


GREEK    LEGENDS.  15v> 

The  "  Manual  of  Mythology "  which  Mr.  Cox  has 
just  published  is  meant  as  a  lesson-book,  more  so  than 
any  of  his  former  publications.  If  we  add  that  the 
whole  of  Greek  and  Roman  mythology  is  told  in  two 
hundred  pages,  in  the  somewhat  cumbrous  form  of 
question  and  answer,  we  need  not  say  that  we  have 
only  a  meagre  abstract  of  classical  mythology,  a  mini- 
mum, a  stepping-stone,  a  primer,  a  skeleton,  or  what- 
ever unpleasant  name  we  like  to  apply  to  it.  We  wish 
indeed  that  Mr.  Cox  had  allowed  himself  more  ample 
scope,  yet  we  feel  bound  to  acknowledge  that,  having 
undertaken  to  tell  what  can  be  told,  in  two  hundred 
pages,  of  classical  mythology,  he  has  chosen  the  most 
important,  the  most  instructive,  and  the  most  attractive 
portions  of  his  subject.  Though  necessarily  leaving 
large  pieces  of  his  canvas  mere  blanks  or  covered  with 
the  faintest  outlines,  he  has  given  to  some  of  his 
sketches  more  life  and  expression  than  can  be  found  in 
many  a  lengthy  article  contributed  to  cyclopaedias  and 
other  works  of  reference. 

But  while  Mr.  Cox  has  thus  stinted  himself  in  telling 
the  tales  of  Greek  and  Roman  mythology,  he  has  made 
room  for  what  is  an  entirely  new  feature  in  his  Man- 
ual, namely,  the  explanations  of  Greek  and  Roman 
myths,  supplied  by  the  researches  of  comparative  my- 
thologists.  From  the  earliest  philosophers  of  Greece 
down  to  Creuzer,  Schelling,  and  Welcker,  everybody 
who  has  ever  thought  or  written  on  mythology  has 
freely  admitted  that  mythology  requires  an  explana- 
tion. All  are  agreed  that  a  myth  does  not  mean  what 
it  seems  to  mean ;  and  this  agreement  is  at  all  events 
important,  in  spite  of  the  divergent  explanations  which 
have  been  proposed  by  different  scholars  and  philoso- 


156  GREEK    LEGENDS. 

phers  in  their  endeavors  to  find  sense  either  in  single 
myths  or  in  the  whole  system  of  ancient  mythology. 

There  is  also  one  other  point  on  which  of  late  years 
a  general  agreement  has  been  arrived  at  among  most 
students  of  mythology,  and  this  is  that  all  mythological 
explanations  must  rest  on  a  sound  etymological  basis. 
Comparative  philology,  after  working  a  complete  reform 
in  the  grammar  and  etymology  of  the  classical  lan- 
guages, has  supplied  this  new  foundation  for  the  proper 
study  of  classical  mythology,  and  no  explanation  of  any 
myth  can  henceforth  be  taken  into  account  which  is  not 
based  on  an  accurate  analysis  of  the  names  of  the  prin- 
cipal actors.  If  we  read  in  Greek  mythology  that 
Helios  was  the  brother  of  Eos  and  Selene,  this  needs 
no  commentary.  Helios  means  the  sun,  Eos  the  dawn, 
Selene  the  moon  ;  nor  does  it  require  any  great  stretch 
of  poetical  imagination  to  understand  how  these  three 
heavenly  apparitions  came  to  called  brothers  and  sis- 
ters. 

But  if  we  read  that  Apollo  loved  Daphne,  that 
Daphne  fled  before  him  and  was  changed  into  a  laurel- 
tree,  we  have  here  a  legend  before  us  which  yields  no 
sense  till  we  know  the  original  meaning  of  Apollo  and 
Daphne.  Now  Apollo  was  a  solar  deity,  and  although 
comparative  philologists  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  find- 
ing the  true  etymology  of  Apollo,  no  doubt  can  exist 
as  to  his  original  character.  The  name  of  Daphne, 
however,  could  not  have  been  interpreted  without  the 
aid  of  comparative  philology,  and  it  is  not  till  we  know 
that  Daphne  was  originally  a  name  of  the  dawn,  that 
we  begin  to  understand  the  meaning  of  her  story. 
It  was  by  taking  myths  which  were  still  half  intelli- 
gible, like  those  of  Apollo  and  Daphne,  Selene  and 


GREEK   LEGENDS.  157 

Endymion,  Eos  and  Tithonos,  that  the  first  advance 
was  made  towards  a  right  interpretation  of  Greek  and 
Homan  legends.  If  we  read  that  Pan  was  wooing 
Pitys  and  that  Boreas,  jealous  of  Pan,  cast  Pitys 
from  a  rock,  and  that  in  her  fall  she  was  changed 
into  a  pine-tree,  we  need  but  walk  with  our  eyea 
open  along  the  cliffs  of  Bournemouth  in  order  to 
see  the  meaning  of  that  legend.  Boreas  is  the  Greek 
for  north  wind,  Pitys  for  pine-tree.  But  what  is  Pan  ? 
Clearly  another  deity  representing  the  wind  in  its  less 
destructive  character.  The  same  Pan  is  called  the 
lover  of  the  nymph  Echo,  and  of  Syrinx.  Why  Pan, 
the  wind,  should  be  called  the  lover  of  Echo,  requires 
no  explanation.  As  to  the  nymph  Syrinx,  —  a  name 
which  means,  in  Greek,  the  shepherd's  pipe,  —  she  is 
further  fabled  to  have  thrown  herself  into  the  river 
Ladon  in  order  to  escape  from  Pan,  and  to  have  been 
changed  into  a  reed.  Here  mythology  has  simply  in- 
verted history  ;  and  while,  in  an  account  of  the  inven- 
tion of  musical  instruments,  we  should  probably  be  told 
that  the  wind  whistling  through  the  river  reeds  led  to 
the  invention  of  the  shepherd's  pipe,  the  poet  tells  us 
that  Pan,  the  wind,  played  with  Syrinx,  and  that  Syrinx 
was  changed  into  a  reed.  The  name  of  Pan  is  con- 
nected with  the  Sanskrit  name  for  wind,  namely, 
"  pavana."  The  root  from  which  it  is  derived  means, 
in  Sanskrit,  to  purify  ;  and  as  from  the  root  "  dyu,"  to 
shine,  we  have  in  Greek  "  Zen,"  "  Zenos,"  correspond- 
ing to  a  supposed  Sanskrit  derivative,  "  dyav-an,"  the 
bright  god,  we  have  frcm  "  pu,"  to  purify,  the  Greek 
"  Pan,"  "  Panos,"  the  purifying  or  sweeping  wind, 
strictly  corresponding  to  a  possible  Sanskrit  form 
"  pav-an."  If  there  was  anywhere  in  Greece  a  sea- 


158  GBEEK   LEGENDS. 

shore  covered  with  pine-forests,  like  the  coast  of  Dor- 
set, any  Greek  poet  who  had  ears  to  hear  the  sweet 
and  plaintive  converse  of  the  wind  and  the  trembling 
pine-trees,  and  eyes  to  see  the  havoc  wrought  by  a 
fierce  northeaster,  would  tell  his  children  of  the  won- 
ders of  the  forest,  and  of  poor  Pitys,  the  pine-tree 
wooed  bv  Pan,  die  gentle  wind,  and  struck  down  by 
jealous  Boreas,  the  north  wind. 

It  is  thus  that  mythology  arose,  and  thus  that  it 
must  be  interpreted  if  it  is  to  be  more  than  a  mere 
conglomerate  of  meaningless  or  absurd  stories.  This 
has  been  felt  by  Mr.  Cox  ;  and  feeling  convinced  that, 
particularly  for  educational  purposes,  mythology  would 
be  useless  —  nay,  worse  than  useless  —  unless  it  were 
possible  to  impart  to  it  some  kind  of  rational  meaning, 
he  has  endeavored  to  supply  for  nearly  every  impor- 
tant name  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  pantheon  an 
etymological  explanation  and  a  rational  interpretation. 
In  this  manner,  as  he  says  in  his  preface,  mythology 
can  be  proved  to  be  "  simply  a  collection  of  the  sayings 
by  which  men  once  upon  a  time  described  whatever 
they  saw  an  I  heard  in  countries  where  they  lived. 
These  sayings  were  all  perfectly  natural,  and  marvel- 
ously  beautiful  and  true.  We  see  the  lovely  evening 
twilight  die  out  before  the  coming  night,  but  when  they 
saw  this,  they  said  that  the  beautiful  Eurydike  had 
been  stung  by  the  serpent  of  darkness,  and  that  Or- 
pheus was  gone  to  fetch  her  back  from  the  land  of  the 
dead.  We  see  the  light  which  had  vanished  in  the 
west  reappear  in  the  east ;  but  they  said  that  Eurydike 
was  now  returning  to  the  earth.  And  as  this  tender 
light  is  seen  no  more  when  the  sun  himself  is  risen, 
they  said  that  Orpheus  had  turned  round  too  soon  to 


GREEK   LEGENDS.  159 

look  at  her,  and  so  was  parted  from  the  wife  whom  he 
loved  so  dearly."  And  not  only  do  meaningless  legends 
recei/e  by  this  process  a  meaning  and  a  beauty  of 
their  own,  but  some  of  the  most  revolting  features 
oi  classical  mythology  are  removed,  and  their  true 
purport  discovered.  Thus  Mr.  Cox  remarks  :  — 

"And  as  it  is  with  this  sad  and  beautiful  tale  of 
Orpheus  and  Eurydike,  so  it  is  with  all  those  which 
may  seem  to  you  coarse,  or  dull,  or  ugly.  They  are  so 
only  because  the  real  meaning  of  the  names  has  been 
half-forgotten  or  wholly  lost.  QEdipus  and  Perseus, 
we  are  told,  killed  their  parents,  but  it  is  only  because 
the  sun  was  said  to  kill  the  darkness  from  which  it 
seems  to  spring.  So,  again,  it  was  said  that  the  Sun 
was  united  in  the  evening  to  the  light  from  which  he 
rose  in  the  morning ;  but  in  the  later  story  it  was  said 
that  CEdipus  became  the  husband  of  his  mother  lokaste, 
and  a  terrible  history  was  built  upon  this  notion.  But 
none  of  these  fearful  stories  were  ever  made  on  pur- 
pose. No  one  ever  sat  down  to  describe  gods  and 
great  heroes  as  doing  things  which  all  decent  men 
would  be  ashamed  to  think  of.  There  can  scarcely  be 
a  greater  mistake  than  to  suppose  that  whole  nations 
were  suddenly  seized  with  a  strange  madness  which 
drove  them  to  invent  all  sorts  of  ridiculous  and  con- 
temptible tales,  and  that  every  nation  has  at  some  time 
or  other  gone  mad  in  this  way." 

That  the  researches  of  comparative  mythologi.its,  so 
well  summed  up  in  Mr.  Cox's  "  Manual  of  Mythol- 
ogy," are  in  the  main  tending  in  the  right  direction,  is, 
we  believe,  admitted  by  all  whose  opinion  on  such 
matters  carries  much  weight.  It  has  been  fully  proved 
that  mythology  is  simply  a  phase,  and  an  inevitable 


160  GREEK  LEGENDS. 

phase  in  the  growth  of  language;  language  being 
taken  in  its  proper  sense,  not  as  the  mere  outward 
symbol,  but  as  the  only  possible  embodiment  of  thought. 
Everything,  while  language  passes  through  that  pecul- 
iar phase,  may  become  mythology.  Not  only  the 
ideas  of  men  as  to  the  origin  of  the  world,  the  govern- 
ment of  the  universe,  the  phenomena  of  nature,  and 
the  yearnings  and  misgivings  of  the  heart,  are  apt  to 
lose  their  natural  and  straightforward  expression,  and 
to  be  repeated  in  a  more  or  less  distorted  form,  but 
even  historical  events,  the  exploits  of  a  powerful  man, 
the  destruction  of  wild  animals, 'the  conquest  of  a  new 
country,  the  death  of  a  beloved  leader,  may  be  spoken 
of  and  handed  down  to  later  ages  in  a  form  decidedly 
mythological.  After  the  laws  that  regulate  the  growth 
and  decay  of  words  have  once  been  clearly  established, 
instead  of  being  any  longer  surprised  at  the  breaking 
out  of  mythological  phraseology,  we  almost  wonder 
how  any  language  could  have  escaped  what  may  really 
be  called  an  infantine  disease,  through  which  even  the 

'  O 

healthiest  constitution  ought  to  pass  sooner  or  later. 
The  origin  of  mythological  phraseology,  whatever  out- 
ward aspects  it  may  assume,  is  always  the  same  ;  it  is 
language  forgetting  herself.  Nor  is  there  anything 
strange  in  that  self-forgetfulness,  if  we  bear  in  mind 
how  large  a  number  of  names  ancient  languages  pos- 
sessed for  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  how  frequently 
the  same  word  was  applied  to  totally  different  subjects. 
If  we  take  the  sun,  or  the  dawn,  or  the  moon,  or  the 
stars,  we  find  that  even  in  Greek  every  one  of  them  is 
still  polyonymous,  i.  e.  has  different  names,  and  is 
known  under  various  aliases.  Still  more  is  this  the 
case  in  Sanskrit,  though  Sanskrit  too  is  a  language 


GREEK   LEGENDS.  1G1 

which,  to  judge  from  its  innumerable  rings,  must  have 
passed  through  many  summers  and  winters  before  it 
grew  into  that  mighty  stem  which  tills  us  witli  awe 
and  admiration,  even  in  the  earliest  relics  of  its  litera- 
ture. Now,  after  a  time,  one  out  of  many  names  of 
the  same  subject  necessarily  gains  a  preponderance ;  it 
becomes  the  current  and  recognized  name,  while  the 
other  names  are  employed  less  and  less  frequently,  and 
at  last  become  obsolete  and  unintelligible.  Yet  it  fre- 
quently happens  that,  either  in  proverbs,  or  in  idiomatic 
phrases,  or  in  popular  poetry,  some  of  these  obsolete 
names  are  kept  up,  and  in  that  case  mythological  decay 
At  once  sets  in.  It  requires  a  certain  effort  to  see  this 
quite  clearly,  because  in  our  modern  languages,  where 
everything  has  its  proper  name,  and  where  each  name 
is  properly  defined,  a  mythological  misunderstanding 
is  almost  impossible. 

But  suppose  that  the  exact  meaning  of  the  word 
"  gloaming  "  had  been  forgotten,  and  that  a  proverbial 
expression,  such  as  "  The  gloaming  sings  the  sun  to 
sleep,"  had  been  preserved,  would  not  the  gloaming 
very  soon  require  an  explanation  ?  and  would  nurses 
long  hesitate  to  tell  their  children  that  the  gloaming 
was  a  good  old  woman  who  came  every  night  to  put 
the  sun  into  his  bed,  and  who  would  be  very  angry  if 
she  found  any  little  children  still  awake  ?  The  children 
would  soon  talk  among  themselves  about  Nurse  Gloam- 
ing, and  as  they  grew  up  would  tell  their  children 
again  of  the  same  wonderful  old  nurse.  It  was  in  this 
and  in  similar  ways  that  in  the  childhood  of  the  world 
many  a  story  grew  up  which,  when  once  repeated  and 
sanctioned  by  a  popular  poet,  became  part  and  parcel 

VOL.  II.  11 


162  GREEK  LEGENDS. 

of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call  the  mythology  of 
ancient  nations. 

The  mistake  most  commonly  committed  is  to  suppose 
that  mythology  has  necessarily  a  religious  character, 
and  that  it  forms  a  whole  or  a  system,  taught  in  ancient 
times  and  believed  in  as  we  believe  in  our  Articles,  or 
even  as  the  Roman  Catholics  believe  in  the  legends  of 
their  saints.  Religion,  no  doubt,  suffered  most  from 
mythological  phraseology,  but  it  did  not  suffer  alone. 
The  stories  of  the  Argonauts,  or  of  the  Trojan  War, 
or  of  the  Calydonian  boar-hunt  had  very  little  to  do 
with  religion,  except  that  some  of  the  heroes  engaged 
in  them  were  called  either  the  sons  or  the  favorites  of 
some  of  the  so-called  gods  of  Greece.  No  doubt  we 
call  them  all  gods,  Vulcan  and  Venus,  as  well  as  Jupi- 
ter and  Minerva  ;  but  even  the  more  thoughtful  among 
the  Greeks  would  hardly  allow  the  name  of  gods  to 
all  the  inhabitants  of  Olympus,  at  least  not  in  that 
pregnant  sense  in  which  Zeus  and  Apollo  and  Athene 
may  fairly  claim  it.  If  children  asked  who  was  the 
good  Nurse  Gloaming  that  sang  the  sun  to  sleep,  the 
answer  would  be  easy  enough,  that  she  was  the 
daughter  of  the  sky  or  of  the  sea,  in  Greek  the 
daughter  of  Zeus  or  of  Nereus ;  but  this  relationship, 
though  it  might  give  rise  to  further  genealogical  com- 
plications, would  by  no  means  raise  the  nurse  to  the 
rank  of  a  deity.  We  speak  of  days  and  years  as  per- 
fectly intelligible  objects,  and  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  a  man  has  wasted  a  day  or  a  year,  or  that  he  has 
killed  the  time.  To  the  ancient  world  days  and  nights 
were  still  more  of  a  problem ;  they  were  strangers  that 
came  and  went,  brothers,  or  brother  and  sister,  who 
brought  light  and  darkness,  joy  and  sorrow,  who  might 


GREEK   LEGENDS.  163 

be  called  the  parents  of  all  living  things,  or  themselves 
the  children  of  heaven  and  earth.  One  poetical  image, 
if  poetical  it  can  be  called,  which  occurs  very  fre- 
quently in  the  ancient  language  of  India,  is  to  repre- 
sent the  days  as  the  herd  of  the  sun,  so  that  the  coming 
and  going  of  each  day  might  be  likened  to  the  stepping 
forth  of  a  cow,  leaving  its  stable  in  the  morning,  cross- 
ing the  heavenly  meadows  by  its  appointed  path,  and 
returning  to  its  stable  in  the  evening.  The  number  of 
this  solar  herd  would  vary  according  to  the  number  of 
days  ascribed  to  each  year.  In  Greek  that  simple 
metaphor  was  no  longer  present  to  the  mind  of  Homer ; 
but  if  we  find  in  Homer  that  Helios  had  seven  herds 
of  oxen,  fifty  in  each  herd,  and  that  their  number 
never  grows  and  never  decreases,  surely  we  can  easily 
discover  in  these  350  oxen  the  350  days  of  the  primi- 
tive year.  And  if  then  we  read  again,  that  the  foolish 
companions  of  Ulysses  did  not  return  to  their  homes 
because  they  had  killed  the  oxen  of  Helios,  may  we 
not  here  too  recognize  an  old  proverbial  or  mytholog- 
ical expression,  too  literally  interpreted  even  by  Homer, 
and  therefore  turned  into  mythology  ?  If  the  original 
phrase  ran,  that  while  Ulysses,  by  never-ceasing  toil, 
succeeded  in  reaching  his  home,  his  companions  wasted 
their  time,  or  killed  the  days,  i.  e.  the  cattle  of  Helios, 
and  were  therefore  punished,  nothing  would  be  more 
natural  than  that  after  a  time  their  punishment  should 
have  been  ascribed  to  their  actually  devouring  the  oxen 
in  the  island  of  Thrinakia ;  just  as  St.  Patrick,  because 
he  converted  the  Irish  and  drove  out  the  venomous 
brood  of  heresy  and  heathenism,  was  soon  believed  to 
have  destroyed  every  serpent  in  that  island,  or  as  St. 
Christopher  was  represented  as  actually  having  carried 
on  his  shoulders  the  infant  Christ. 


164  GREEK   LEGENDS. 

All  mythology  of  this  character  must  yield  to  that 
treatment  to  which  Mr.  Cox  has  subjected  the  whole 
Greek  and  Roman  pantheon.  But  there  is  one  point 
that  seems  to  us  to  deserve  more  consideration  than  it 
has  hitherto  received  at  the  hands  of  comparative  my- 
thologists.  We  see  that,  for  instance,  in  the  very  case 
of  St.  Patrick,  mythological  phraseology  infected  the 
perfectly  historical  character  of  an  Irish  missionary. 
The  same  may  have  taken  place  —  in  fact  we  need  not 
hesitate  to  say  the  same  has  constantly  taken  place  — 
in  the  ancient  stories  of  Greece  and  Rome,  as  well  as 
in  the  legends  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Those  who 
analyze  ancient  myths  ought,  therefore,  to  be  prepared 
for  this  historical  or  irrational  element,  and  ought  not 
to  suppose  that  everything  which  has  a  mythical  ap- 
pearance is  thoroughly  mythical  or  purely  ideal.  Mr. 
Cox  has  well  delineated  the  general  character  of  the 
most  popular  heroes  of  ancient  mythology :  — 

"In  a  very  large  number  of  legends  (he  says),  the 
parents,  warned  that  their  own  offspring  will  destroy 
them,  expose  their  children,  who  are  saved  by  some 
wild  beast  and  brought  up  by  some  herdsman.  The 
children  so  recovered  always  grow  up  beautiful,  brave, 
strong,  and  generous  ;  but,  either  unconsciously  or 
against  their  will,  they  fulfill  the  warnings  given  before 
their  birth,  and  become  the  destroyers  of  their  parents. 
Perseus,  OEdipus,  Cyrus,  Romulus,  Paris,  are  all  ex- 
posed as  infants,  are  all  saved  from  death,  and  dis- 
covered by  the  splendor  of  their  countenances  and 
the  dignity  of  their  bearing.  Either  consciously  or  un- 
consciously Perseus  kills  Akrisios,  (Edipus  kills  Laios, 
Cyrus  kills  Astyages,  Romulus  kills  Amulius,  and 
Paris  brings  about  the  ruin  of  Priam  and  the  city  of 
Trov." 


GREEK   LEGENDS.  165 

Mr.  Cox  supposes  that  all  these  names  are  solar 
names,  and  that  the  mythical  history  of  every  one  of 
these  heroes  is  but  a  disguise  of  language.  Originally 
there  must  have  existed  in  ancient  languages  a  large 
number  of  names  for  the  sun,  and  the  sky,  and  the 
dawn,  and  the  earth.  The  vernal  sun  returning  with 
fresh  vigor  after  the  deathlike  repose  of  winter  had  a 
different  name  from  the  sun  of  summer  and  autumn; 
and  the  setting  sun  with  its  fading  brilliancy  was 
addressed  differently  from  the  "  bridegroom  coming 
forth  out  of  his  chamber,"  or  "  the  giant  rejoicing  to 
run  his  course."  Certain  names,  expressions,  and 
phrases  sprang  up,  originally  intended  to  describe  the 
changes  of  the  day  and  the  seasons  of  the  year ;  after 
a  time  these  phrases  became  traditional,  idiomatic,  pro- 
verbial ;  they  ceased  to  be  literally  understood,  and 
were  misunderstood  and  misinterpreted  into  mythical 
phraseology.  At  first  the  phrase  "Perseus  will  kill 
Akrisios  "  meant  no  more  than  that  light  will  conquer 
darkness,  that  the  sun  will  annihilate  the  night,  that 
the  morn  is  coming.  If  each  day  was  called  the  child 
of  the  night,  it  might  be  truly  said  that  the  young  child 
was  destined  to  kill  its  parents,  that  CEdipus  must  kill 
Laios.1  And  if  the  violet  twilight,  lokaste,  was  called 

1  Professor  Comparetti,  in  his  Essay  Edlpo  e  la  Mitologla  Comparata 
(Pi.-=a,  1807),  has  endeavored  to  combat  M.  Breal's  explanation  of  the  myth 
of  (Edipus.  His  arguments  are  most  carefully  chosen,  and  supported  by 
much  learning  and  ingenuity  which  even  those,  who  are  not  convinced  by  his 
able  pleiuling,  cannot  fail  to  appreciate.  It  is  not  for  me  to  defend  the  whole 
theory  proposed  by  M.  Bre'sil  in  his  Mi/the  (f  (E<li/ie  (Paris,  1863).  But  as 
i'rofessor  Comparetti,  in  controverting  the  identification  of"  Laios  r'  with  tho 
Sanskrit  '•  dasa,"  or  "  dasya,"  denies  t'.ie  possibility  of  an  Aryan  d  appearing 
in  Greek  as  /.  1  may,  in  defense  of  my  own  identification  of  "  dasahanta" 
with  A<f<o/<ivrrjs  (Kuhn's  Zeilsct/rift,  vol.  v.  p.  152),  be  allowed  to  remark 
.hat  I  had  supported  the  change  of  d  into  /  in  Greek  by  instances  taken 
from  Ahrens,  De  Dialeclo  Dorica,  p.  85,  such  as  Ad/>ioj  =  Safivri,  'OAv<r<revt  = 


166  GREEK   LEGENDS. 

the  wife  of  the  nocturnal  Laios,  the  same  name  ot 
lokaste,  as  the  violet  dawn,  might  be  given  to  the 
wife  of  (Edipus.  Hence  that  strangely  entangled 
skein  of  mythological  sayings  which  poets  and  philos- 
ophers sought  to  disentangle  as  well  as  they  could, 
and  which  at  last  was  woven  into  that  extraordinary 
veil  of  horrors  which  covers  the  sanctuary  of  Greek 
rel  igion. 

But  if  this  be  so  —  and,  strange  as  it  may  sound  at 
first,  the  evidence  brought  in  support  of  this  interpre- 
tation of  mythology  is  irresistible  —  it  would  seem  to 
follow  that  Perseus,  and  (Edipus,  and  Paris,  and  Rom- 
ulus could  none  of  them  claim  any  historical  reality. 
Most  historians  might  be  prepared  to  give  up  Perseus, 
CEdipus,  and  Paris,  perhaps  even  Romulus  and  Re- 
mus ;  but  what  about  Cyrus  ?  Cyrus,  like  the  other 
solar  heroes,  is  known  to  be  a  fatal  child ;  he  is  exposed, 
he  is  saved,  and  suckled,  and  recognized,  and  restored 
to  his  royal  dignity,  and  by  slaying  Astyages  he  fulfills 
the  solar  prophecy  as  completely  as  any  one  of  his  com- 
peers. Yet,  for  all  that,  Cyrus  was  a  real  man,  an  his- 
torical character,  whose  flesh  and  bone  no  sublimating 
process  will  destroy.  Here  then  we  see  that  mythol- 
ogy does  not  always  create  its  own  heroes,  but  that  it 
lays  hold  of  real  history,  and  coils  itself  round  it  so 

'OSuo-crtu's,  and  XI'O-KOS  =  fitVicos.  If  in  any  of  the  local  dialects  of  Greece  the 
dental  media  could  assume  the  sound  of  Z,  the  admission  of  the  change  of  a 
Greek  d  into  a  Greek  I  was  justified  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  the 
name  of  one  or  two  among  the  local  heroes  of  ancient  Greece,  though  I 
grant  that  it  might  be  open  to  objections  if  admitted  in  the  explanation  of 
ordinary  Greek  words,  such  as  \ao?  or  /ieXeraw.  If,  therefore,  Professor  Cur- 
tiua  (Grundziige  der  Griechischen  Etymoloyie.  p.  325)  calls  the  transition  of 
d  into  /  unheard  of  in  Greek,  he  could  only  have  meant  the  classical  Greek, 
and  not  the  Greek  dialects,  which  are  nevertheless  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance in  the  interpretation  of  the  names  of  local  gods  and  heroes,  and  in  th« 
explanation  of  local  legends. 


GREEK  LEGENDS.  167 

closely  that  it  is  difficult,  nay,  almost  impossible,  to  sep- 
a-rate  the  ivy  from  the  oak,  or  the  lichen  from  the  gran- 
ite to  which  it  clings.  And  here  is  a  lesson  which 
comparative  mythologists  ought  not  to  neglect.  They 
are  naturally  bent  on  explaining  everything  that  can  be 
explained  ;  but  they  should  bear  in  mind  that  there 
may  be  elements  in  every  mythological  riddle  which 
resist  etymological  analysis,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
their  origin  was  not  etymological,  but  historical.  The 
name  of  "  Cyrus  "  or  "  Koresh  "  has  been  supposed  to 
have  some  affinity  with  the  Persian  name  of  the  sun, 
"khvar"  or  "  khor  " ;  and,  though  this  is  wrong.it 
can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  name  of  "  Astyages," 
the  Median  king,  the  enemy  of  Cyrus,  doomed  to  de- 
struction by  a  solar  prophecy,  is  but  a  corruption  of  the 
Zend  name  "  Azhi  dahaka,"  the  destructive  serpent, 
the  offspring  of  Ahriman,  who  was  chained  by  Thrae- 
taona, and  is  to  be  killed  at  the  end  of  days  by  Kere- 
saspa.  Mr.  Cox  refers  several  times  to  this  "  Azhi  da- 
haka "  and  his  conqueror  Thraetaona,  and  he  mentions 
the  brilliant  discovery  of  Eugene  Burnouf,  who  recog- 
nized in  the  struggle  between  Thraetaona  and  "  Azhi 
dahaka  "  the  more  famous  struggle  celebrated  by  Fir- 
dusi  in  the  "  Shahnameh  "  between  Feridun  and  Zo- 
hak.1  If,  then,  the  Vedic  "  Ahi,"  the  serpent  of  dark- 
ness destroyed  by  Trita,  Indra.  and  other  solar  heroes, 
is  but  a  mythological  name,  and  if  the  same  applies  to 
"  Azhi  dahaka,"  conquered  by  Thraetaona,  and  to  the 
Echidna  slain  by  Phoebus,  and  to  Fafnir  slain  by  Si- 
gurd, what  shall  we  say  of  Astyages  killed  by  Cyrus? 
We  refer  those  who  take  an  interest  in  these  questions 
to  a  posthumous  work  of  one  of  the  most  learned  dig« 

1  See  Essay  on  the  Zend-Aresta,  vol.  i.  p.  97. 


168  GREEK  LEGENDS. 

nitaries  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  "  Zoroas- 
trische  Studien  "  of  F.  Winclischmann.  The  historical 
character  of  Cyrus  can  hardly  be  doubted  by  any  one% 
but  the  question  whether  Astyages  was  assigned  to  him 
as  his  grandfather  merely  by  the  agency  of  popular 
songs,  or  whether  Astyages  too  was  a  real  king,  involves 
very  important  issues,  particularly  as,  according  to 
Windischmann,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  iden- 
tity of  Darius,  the  Median,  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and 
Astyages.  What  is  called  the  history  of  Media  before 
the  time  of  Cyrus  is  most  likely  nothing  but  the  echo 
of  ancient  mythology  repeated  by  popular  ballads. 
Moses  of  Khorene  distinctly  appeals  to  popular  songs 
which  told  of  "  Ajdahak,"  the  serpent,1  and,  with  re- 
gard to  the  changes  of  the  name,  Modjmil2  says  that 
the  Persians  gave  to  Zohak  the  name  of  "  Dehak,"  i.  e. 
ten  evils,  because  he  introduced  ten  evils  into  the  world. 
In  Arabic  his  name  is  said  to  have  been  "  Dechak," 
the  laugher,  while  his  other  name  "  Azdehak  "  is  ex- 
plained as  referring  to  the  disease  of  his  shoulders, 
where  two  serpents  grew  up  which  destroyed  men.8 
All  this  is  popular  mythology,  arising  from  a  misunder- 
standing of  the  old  name,  "  Azhi  dahaka  ;  "  and  we 
should  probably  not  be  wrong  in  supposing  that  even 
"  Dejoces "  was  a  corruption  of  "  Dehak,"  another 
ancestor  in  that  Median  dynasty  which  came  to  an 
end  hi  Astyages,  the  reputed  grandfather  of  Cyrus. 
We  can  here  only  point  to  the  problem  as  a  warning 
to  comparative  mythologists,  and  remind  them,  in  part- 
ing, that  as  many  of  the  old  German  legends  were 

1  Windischmann,  Zoroastrische  Studien,  p.  138. 
1  Journal  Asiatique,  vol.  xi.  p.  156. 
'  Windischmann,  1.  c.  p.  37. 


GREEK   LEGENDS.  169 

transferred  to  the  Apostles,  as  some  of  the  ancient 
heathen  prophecies  were  applied  to  the  emperor  Bar- 
barossa,  as  tricks  performed  by  solar  archers  were  told 
again  of  a  William  Tell,  and  Robin  Hood,  and  Friar 
Tuck  —  naji  as  certain  ancient  legends  are  now  told  in 
Germany  of  Frederick  the  Great  —  it  does  not  always 
follow  that  heroes  of  old  who  performed  what  may  be 
called  solar  feats  are  therefore  nothing  but  myths.  We 
ought  to  be  prepared,  even  in  the  legends  of  Herakles, 
or  Meleagros,  or  Theseus,  to  find  some  grains  of  local 
history  on  which  the  sharpest  tools  of  comparative  my- 
thology must  bend  or  break. 

March  1867. 


XIX. 
BELLEROPHON. 


WHA.T  was  the  original  intention  of  the  name  of 
"  Bellerophon  ?  "  That  bellero,  the  first  part  of  the 
word,  represents  some  power  of  darkness,  drought, 
cold,  winter,  or  of  moral  evil,  is  easy  to  guess.  The 
Greeks  say  that  there  was  a  word  Ta  lAAepa,  which  sig- 
nified anything  evil  or  hateful,1  and  was  used  in  that 
sense  by  Kallimachos.2  Nay,  Bellerophon  or  Beller- 
ophontes  is  said  to  have  been  called  also  Ellerophontes. 
That  the  Greeks  in  general,  however,  were  no  longer 
conscious  of  the  appellative  power  of  Belleros,  is  best 
proved  by  the  fact  that,  in  order  to  explain  the  myth 
of  Bellerophon,  they  invented,  very  late,  it  would  seem, 
a  legend,  according  to  which  Bellerophon  had  killed  a 
distinguished  Corinthian,  of  the  name  of  Belleros,  and 
had  fled  to  Argos  or  Tyrins  to  be  purified  by  Prcetos 
from  the  stain  of  that  murder.  Nothing,  however,  is 
known  about  this  Belleros,  and  as  the  ordinary  ac- 
counts represent  Bellerophon  as  flying  to  Argos  after 
having  killed  his  brother  Deliades,  or,  as  he  is  also 
called,  Peiren  or  Alkimenes,  there  can  be  little  doubt 

1  Preller,  Giitcldsche  Mythologie,  vol.  ii.  p.  55. 

«  Eustath.  ad  II.  p.  635;  Naeke,  Opusc.  vol.  ii.  p.  167. 


BELLEROPHON.  171 

that  the  Corinthian  nobleman  of  the  name  of  Belleros 
owes  his  origin  entirely  to  a  desire  of  later  mytholo- 
gists,  who  felt  bound  to  explain  the  no  longer  intelligi- 
ble name  of  Bellerophon  or  Bellerophontes. 

Such  a  name,  it  is  quite  clear,  was  not  originally 
without  some  meaning,  and  without  attempting  to 
unravel  the  whole  tragedy  of  Hipponoos,  who  after- 
wards monopolized  the  name  of  Bellerophon,  it  may  be 
possible  to  discover  by  a  strict  observance  of  etymolog- 
ical laws,  the  original  form  and  the  original  purport  of 
this  peculiar  name. 

With  regard  to  the  second  half  of  the  name,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  in  Bellerophon  and  Beller- 
ophontes, "  phon  "  and  "  phontes  "  had  one  and  the 
same  meaning.  Now  "  phon-tes  "  at  the  end  of  com- 
pounds means  the  killer,  the  Sanskrit  "  han-taV'  killer ; 
and  therefore  "  phon  "  can,  in  our  name,  hardly  mean 
anything  else,  and  would  correspond  exactly  with  the 
Sanskrit  "ban,"  nom.  "ha,"  killing. 

From  the  reported  change  in  the  initial  letter  of 
Bellerophon,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  it  represents  a  labial 
liquid,  and  is  in  fact  the  well-known  digamma  JEoli- 
cum.  But  it  is  more  difficult  to  determine  what  letters 
we  ought  to  look  for  as  corresponding  in  other  lan- 
guages to  the  XX  of  the  Greek  word  "  bellero."  In 
many  cases  Greek  AX  represents  a  single  Z,  followed 
originally  by  a  sibilant  or  a  liquid.1  In  this  manner 
we  can  account  for  the  single  I  in  TroXus  and  the  double 
I  in  TroXXot.  Tlo\v<s  corresponds  to  the  Sanskrit  "pulu  " 
(Rv.  I.  179,  5),  or  "  puru,"  gen.  "puros,"  whereas 
the  oblique  cases  would  represent  a  Sanskrit  adjective 
"  purvd,"  gen.  "purvasya."  As  TroAXoi  points  to  a 
*  See  Abrens,  Dial.  Dor.  p.  60. 


172  BELLKROPHON. 

Sanskrit  "  purve*,"  oAot  points  to  the  Sanskrit  "  sarve." 
In  Latin,  too,  a  double  I  owes  its  origin  not  unfrequently 
to  an  original  single  /  or  r  followed  by  v.1  Thus  the 
double  /  in  mellis,  the  gen.  of  mel,  honey,  is  explained 
by  the  Sanskrit  "  madhu,''  raised  to  "madhv-i,"  and 
regularly  changed  to  "  madv-i,"  "  malv-i,"  "  mall-5." 
Pel,  gen.  fellis,  is  explained  by  "haru"  in  "  haru- 
s]KJx,"2  raised  to  "barv-i,"  "halv-i,"  "hall-i,"  "fall-i."8 
Mollis  corresponds  to  Sanskrit  "  mridu,"  through  the 
intermediate  links,  "  raardv-i,"  "  maldv-i,"  "  malv-i,'* 
"  mall-i ;  " 4  nay,  if  Ave  consider  the  Vedic  word  for  bee, 
"  ridu-pa'  "  (Rv.  VIII.  77,  11),  mel,  mellis,  too,  might 
be  derived  from  "  mridu,"  and  not  from  "  madhu." 
According  to  these  analogies,  then,  the  Greek  jSe'AXcpo 
would  lead  us  back  to  a  Sanskrit  word  "  varvara."  This 
word  actually  occurs  in  the  Sanskrit  language,  and 
means  hairy,  woolly,  shaggy,  rough.  It  is  applied  to 
the  negro-like  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  India  who  were 
conquered  and  driven  back  by  Aryan  conquerors,  and 
it  has  been  identified  with  the  Greek  /3<ip/3apos.  San- 
dal-wood, for  instance,  which  grows  chiefly  on  the 
Malabar  coast,  is  called  in  Sanskrit  "  barbarottha," 
sprung  up  among  Barbaras,  because  that  coast  was 
always  held  by  Tamulian  or  non-Aryan  people.  Pro- 
fessor Kuhn,  identifying  barbara  and  (3a.p(3apo<s,  refers 
the  meaning  of  both  words,  not  to  the  shaggy  or  woolly- 
hair,  but  to  the  confused  speech  (balbutire)  of  non- 
Aryan  tribes.  It  will  be  difficult  to  prove  with  what 
intent  the  Greeks  and  the  Hindus  first  applied  (3dp(3a- 

1  Corssen,  Kritische  Beitrage,  p.  385. 

2  Aufrecht,  in  Kuhn's  Zeitschrift,  vol.  iii.  p.  198. 

8  As  to  the  interchange  of  h  and  /  in  Latin,  see  Corssen,  Kritische  B«i- 
Irage,  p.  208;  as  to  the  etymology  of"  fel,"  Ib.  p.  318 
4  Corssen,  Kritisclte  Beitraye,  p.  323. 


BELLEROPHON.  173 

pos  and  Barbara  to  tribes  differing  from  themselves  both 
in  speech  and  aspect.  It  is  true  that  in  Greek  the  word 
occurs  for  the  first  time  in  Homer  with  a  special  refer- 
ence to  language  ("  Iliad,"'  ii.  876,  KSpes  /2ap/2apo<io>voi) : 
and  in  Sanskrit  also  the  earliest  passage  in  which  "  bar- 
bara  "  is  found  refers  to  speech  (Rig-veda  Pratisakhya, 
Sutra  784 ;  XIV.  6).  But  the  "  barbarata  "  there  men- 
tioned as  a  fault  of  pronunciation,  is  explained  by  the 
same  word  ("  asaukumaryarn  ")  which  in  Sutra  778 
serves  as  an  explanation  of  "  lomasya ;  "  and  this  "  lo- 
masya,"  meaning  shagginess,  is,  like  the  Greek  Sao-urr/?, 
clearly  transferred  from  the  shagginess  of  hair  (u  lo- 
man,"  hair)  to  the  shagginess  of  pronunciation,  so  that 
after  all,  in  Sanskrit  at  least,  the  original  conception  of 
the  adjective  "  barbara  "  seems  to  have  been  shaggy. 

However  that  may  be,  it  is  clear  that  many  words  for 
wool  are  derived  from  the  same  root  "  var"  which 
yielded  "  varvara  "  or  "  barbara."  This  root  means 
originally  to  cover,  and  it  yielded  in  Sanskrit  "  ura  " 
in  ura-bhra,"  ram,  i.  e.  laniger ;  in  Greek  eTpos  and 
Ip-iov.  In  the  Veda  we  have  likewise  the  feminine 
"  ura,"  sheep  (Rv.  VIII.  34,  3),  — 

"  dram  na  dh&nute  vrfka/t," 

"(the  stone  tears  the  Soma  plant)  as  the  wolf  teari 
the  sheep."  The  wolf  is  called  "  uramathi "  (Rv. 
VIII.  66,  8),  literally  the  sheep-shaker,  or  sheep-lifte?*. 
From  the  same  root  are  formed,  by  means  of  tire 
suffix  wa,  the  Sanskrit  "  uma,"  wool,  particularly  of 
sheep  ;  afterwards  "  urwayu,"  a  goat,  and  a  spider ;  the 
one  from  wearing,  growing,  or  supplying  wool ;  the 
other  from,  as  it  were,  spinning  or  weaving  it.  Tlris 
the  spider  is  also  called  in  Sanskrit  "  uma-nabhi  "  and 
"  uma-vabhi,"  literally  the  wool-weaver;  and  one  of 


174  BELLEROPHON. 

the  enemies  killed  bj  Indra  is  "Aurnavabha,"  which 
seems  to  mean  a  ram  rather,  a  wool-provider,  than  a 
spider.  This  "  ur«a,"  as  Bopp  has  shown,  appears 
again  in  Russian  as  "  volna,"  in  Gothic  as  "  vulla,"  r 
having  been  changed  to  Z,  and  In  into  II.  The  same 
assimilation  is  found  in  Latin  villus,  gen.  villi^  and  vel- 
ZMS,  gen.  velleris.  It  might  be  difficult  to  convince  a 
classical  scholar  that  vellus  was  not  derived  from  the 
Latin  vellere,  particularly  as  Varro  himself  gives  that 
etymology  ;  but  it  would  be  equally  difficult  to  establish 
such  an  etymology  by  any  analogies.  It  is  curious, 
however,  to  remark,  for  reasons  to  be  explained  here- 
after, that  vellera  in  Latin  signifies  light,  fleecy  clouds. 
(Virg.  "Georg."  1,  397;  Luc.  iv.  124.) 

"  Ura,"  therefore,  from  a  root  "  var,"  to  cover, 
meant  originally  cover,  then  skin,  fleece,  wool.  In  its 
derivatives,  too,  these  various  meanings  of  the  root 
"  var "  appear  again  and  again,  Thus  "  uranaA  " 
means  ram,  "urawi,"  sheep;  but  "  urawaA,"  quite  a 
different  formation,  means  protector.  For  instance, 
with  the  genitive  :  — 

Rv.  I.  173,  7.  "  samatsu  tva  sura  satam  uranam  pra-pathfntamam," 
"  Thee,  O  hero,  in  battles  the  protector  of  the  brave,  the  best  guide!  ' 
Rv.  VII-  73,  3.  "  aheina  yai/nam  patham  uranaA," 
"  Let  us  speed  the  sacrifice,  as  keepers  of  the  (old)  ways!  " 

With  the  accusative :  — 

Rv.  IH.  19,  2.  "  (Agni/O  deva-tatim  uranafc," 
"Agni,  who  protects  the  gods." 
Rv.  IX.  109,  9.  "  fnduA  punanaA  pra^am  uranaA," 
"  The  purified  Soma,  protecting  the  people." 

Without  any  case  :  — 

Rv.  IV.  C,  4.  "  (AgniA)  pra-dfvaA  uranaA," 

"  Agni  the  old  guardian."     See  also  Rv.  IV.  7,  3;  VI.  63,  4. 

Now  if  "  uma,"  wool,  meant  originally  a  covering^ 


BELLEROPHON.  175 

"  var-?za  "  also,  which  now  means  color,  would  seem 
to  have  started  from  the  same  conception.  Color 
might  naturally  be  conceived  as  the  covering,  the  out- 
side, as  xpws  and  xpw/xa  in  Greek  combine  the  meanings 
of  skin  and  color.  From  "  vama,"  color  (brightness), 
we  have  in  Sanskrit  "  varwi,"  gold,  as  from  "  rupa," 
form  (beauty),  we  have  "  rupya,"  silver,  from  which 
"  Rupee  ; "  for  we  cannot  well  derive  the  name  of  sil- 
ver, the  metal,  from  the  figure  ("  rupa  ")  that  was 
stamped  on  a  silver  coin. 

In  the  Veda  "vama"  appears  in  the  sense  of  color, 
of  bright  color  or  light,  and  of  race. 

In  the  sense  of  color  in  general,  "  vama  "  occurs,  — 

Rv.  I.  73,  7.  "  krishnam  ka.  varnam  arunam  ka  sam  dhuft," 

"  They  placed  together  the  dark  and  the  bright  color  (of  night  and 

day)."  f 

Rv.  I.  113,  2.  "  dyav4  varnam  fcavathaA  a-minaneY' 
"  Day  and  night  move  on  destro3'ing  their  color.'' 

Frequently  "  vama  "  is  used  in  the  Veda  as  imply- 
ing bright  color  or  light :  — 

Rv.  II.  34,  13.  "  ni-meghamanaA  atyena  pa^asa  su-sfcandram  varwam 
dadhire  su-pe"sasam," 

"  They  (the  Rudras)  strongly  showering  down  on  their  horse,  made  shin- 
ing, beautiful  light."  (On  "  payas  "  and  its  supposed  connection  with 
Pegasos,  see  Kuhn,  in  his  "  Zeitschrift,"  vol.  i.  p.  461;  and  Sonne,  Ib. 
vol.  x.  p.  174,  seq.) 

Rv.  II.  1, 12.  "  tava  sparhe  varne," 

"  In  thy  sparkling  light,  0  Agni !  " 

Rv.  III.  34,  5.  "  pra  imam  varnam  atirat  «ukram  asam," 

"  He,  Indra,  spread  out  the  bright  light  of  the  dawn." 

In  the  ninth  Mandala  the  color  ("  var«a ")  of 
the  Soma  juice  is  frequently  mentioned,  as  "hari," 
"  rusat,"  "  su&i,"  also  as  "  asurya  "  :  — 

Rv.  X.  3,  3.    "  Agnih  vi-tfsh^an  rusadbhiA  varnaiA," 
"  Agni  far-striding  with  shining  colors." 

Even  without  determining  adjectives,  "  varwa  "  has 
occasionally  the  sense  of  light :  — 


J76  BELLEROPHON. 

Rv.  I.  92, 10.  "  samanam  varnam  abhf  sumbhamana," 
"  The  old  Dawn  that  clothes  herself  in  the  same  light." 
Rv.  X.  124.  7.  "  ta/£  asya  varnam  sukaynh  bharibhrati," 
"They  (the  dawns),  the  bright  ones,  carry  always  the  light  of  the 
sun."     See  also  Rv.  II.  4,  5;  II.  5,  5;  IV.  15,  3. 

Hence  we  may  take  "  varwa  "  in  the  same  sense  in 
another  passage,  where  the  commentator  explains  it  as 
Indra,  the  protector  :  — 

Rv.  I.  104,  2.  "  devasa/t  manyum  dasasya  sfcamnan 
te'  naA  a  vakshan  suvitaya  vnrnam," 

"  The  gods  broke  the  pride  of  Dasa  (the  enemy) ;  may  they  bring 
to  us  light  for  the  sacrifice." 

Lastly,  "  vanza  "  means  color,  or  tribe,  or  caste,  the 
difference  in  color  being  undoubtedly  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal causes  of  that  feeling  of  strangeness  and  hetero- 
geneousness  which  found  expression  in  the  name  of 
tribe,  and,  in  India,  of  caste.1  The  commentators 
generally  take  "vama"  in  the  technical  sense  of  caste, 
and  refer  it  to  the  three  highest  castes  ("  traivaraika  "_) 
in  opposition  to  the  fourth,  the  /S'udras. 

Rv.  III.  34,  9.  "  hatvi  d;isyun  pra  aryam  varnam  ava/t," 

"  Indra,  killing  the  Dasyus  (the  enemies),  has  protected  the  Aryan 

color." 

Rv.  II.  12,  4.  "  yaA  dasam  varnam  adharam  giih&  akar," 
"  Indra  who  brought  the  color  of  the  Dasas  low  in  secret.'' 
Rv.  II.  3,5.  "varnam  punanaA  yasasam  su-viram," 
"  (The  heavenly  gates)  which  illuminate  the  glorious  color  (race), 

rich  in  heroes." 

But  to  return  to  "varvara,"  to  which  on  etymolog 
ical  grounds  we  should  assign  the  meaning  of  shaggy» 
hairy,  villosus,  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  such  a  word, 
though  it  supplies  an  intelligible  meaning  of  the  Greek 
myth  of  Belleros,  as  slain  by  Bellerophon,  does  not 
occur  in  the  Veda  among  the  numerous  names  of  the 
demons  slain  by  Indra,  Agni,  and  other  bright  gods. 

1  See  my  letter  to  Chevalier  Bunsen,  On  tite  Turanian  Language* 
p.  84. 


BELLEROPHON.  177 

The  same  happens  very  frequently,  namely,  that  San- 
skrit supplies  us  with  the  etymological  meaning  of  a 
term  used  in  Greek  mythology,  although  the  correspond- 
ing word  does  not  occur  in  the  actual  or  mythological 
language  of  India.  Thus  the  Greek  "Hera"  is  easily 
explained  by  "  Svara,"  or,  according  to  Sonne  (Kuhn, 
"  Zeitschrift,"  vol.  x.  p.  366,  vol.  ix.  p.  202),  by 
"  Vasra ;  "  but  neither  of  these  words  occurs  in  the 
mythological  phraseology  of  the  Veda.  There  remains, 
however,  a  question  which  has  still  to  be  answered, 
namely,  Do  we  find  among  the  demons  slain  by  solar 
deities,  one  to  whom  the  name  of  "  varvara,"  l  in  the 
sense  of  shaggy,  would  be  applicable  ?  and  this  ques- 
tion we  may  answer  with  a  decided  Yes. 

One  of  the  principal  enemies  or  "  dasas  "  conquered 
by  Indra  is  the  black  cloud.  This  black  cloud  con- 
tains the  rain  or  the  fertilizing  waters  which  Indra  is 
asked  to  send  down  upon  the  earth,  and  this  he  can 
only  do  by  slaying  the  black  demon  that  keeps  them  in 
prison.  This  black  cloud  itself  is  sometimes  spoken  of 
in  the  Veda  as  the  black  skin :  — 

Rv.  IX.  41, 1.  "  ghnanta/i.  krishnam  apa  tva&am," 
"  Pushing  away  the  black  skin,  i.  e.  cloud." 

In  other  places  the  cloud  is  called  the  rain-giving 
and  fertilizing  skin  :  — 

Rv.  I.  129,  3.  "  dasmaft  hf  sma  vrfshanam  pfnvasi  tvafcam," 
"For  thou,  the  strong  one,  fillest  the  rainy  skin." 

i  Be'AAepo?  may  either  be  simply  identified  with  "  varvara,"  in  the  sense 
of  shaggy,  or  by  taking  F«XXos  as  representing  the  Latin  villas,  an  adjective 
FtAAepos  might  have  been  formed,  like  00o«-po?  from  <ji06vos.  The  transi- 
tion into  XX  appears  also  in  /udXXos,  sheep's-wool,  where  the  n  represents  the 
labial  liquid.  See  Lobeck,  De  Prolhesi  et  Apharesi,  p.  Ill  seq.;  and 
Curtius.  in  Kuhn's  Zeitschrift,  vol.  iii.  p.  410:  /u.apir  =  vrik ;  fif\Stav  •= 
FeXSiov,  juaTjjv  ==  vrithii. 

VOL.  II.  12 


178  BELLEROPHON. 

While  thus  the  cloud  itself  is  spoken  of  as  a  black 
skin,  the  demon  of  the  cloud,  or  the  cloud  personified, 
appears  in  the  Veda  as  a  ram,  i.  e.  as  a  shaggy,  hairy 
animal,  in  fact,  as  a  BeAAepos. 

Thus  Urarca,  which,  as  we  saw  before,  meant  ram  or 
laniger,  is  a  name  of  a  demon,  slain  by  Indra  :  — 

Rv.  II.  14.  "  Ye  priests,  bring  hither  Soma  for  Indra,  pour  from  the 

bowls  the  delicious  food !     The  hero  truly  always  lovea  to  drink 

of  it ;  sacrifice  to  the  strong,  for  he  desires  it ! 
"  Ye  priests,  he  who  struck  down  "VYitra,  when  he  had  hid  the  waters, 

as  a  tree  is  struck  by  lightning,  —  to  him  who  desires  this  Soma, 

offer  it;  for  that  Indra  desires  to  drink  it ! 
"Ye  priests,  he  who  slew  Drfbhika,  who  drove  out  the  cows,  for  he 

had  opened  the  stable,  to  him  offer  this  Soma !     Cover  him  with 

Somas  as  the  wind  in  the  sky,  as  an  old  woman  covers  herself 

with  clothes ! 

"Ye  priests,  he  who  slew  Urana,  who  had  shown  his  ninety-nine  arms, 
—  he  who  slew  down  to  the  ground  Arbuda,  that  Indra  call  hither 
to  the  offering  of  Soma!  " 

Here  Urawa  is  no  doubt  a  proper  name,  but  the 
idea  which  it  suggested  originally  could  only  have 
been  that  of  "  urana,"  meaning  ram  or  some  other 
shaggy  animal.  And  the  same  applies  to  the  Greek 
Be'AAepos.  Though  in  Greek  it  has  become  a  mere 
proper  name,  its  original  meaning  was  clearly  that  of 
the  shaggy  ram  as  the  symbol  of  the  shaggy  cloud,  a 
monstrum  villosum,  this  being  the  very  adjective  which 
Roman  poets  like  to  apply  to  monsters  of  the  same 
kith  and  kin,  such  as  Gorgo  or  Cacus ;  e.  g.  Ov. 
"  Met."  x.  21 :  — 

"  Nee  uti  villosa  colubris 
Terna  Medusaei  vincirem  guttura  monstri." 

"  ^En."  viii.  266  (of  Cacus)  :  — 

"  Terribiles  oculos,  vultum,  villosaque  setis 
Pectora  semiferi "    .    .    .    . 

We  cannot  therefore  claim  the  name  of  Belleros  01 


BELLEROPHON.  179 

Bellerophon  for  that  period  of  mythology  which  pre- 
ceded the  Aryan  separation,  a  period  during  which 
such  names  as  Dyaus  =  Zeus,  Varuwa  =  Ovpavos,  Ushas 
=  'Hws,  Sarawyu  =  'Epii/v's,  Ahana=  Aa<^>nj  and  'AOyvr], 
T&bliu  =  'Op^eus,  Haritas  =  Xaptres  were  current  among 
the  ancient  worshippers  of  the  Devas  or  bright  gods. 
But  we  can  see  at  least  this,  that  Bellerophontes  had 
an  intelligible  meaning,  and  a  meaning  analogous  to 
that  of  other  names  of  solar  heroes,  the  enemies  of  the 
dark  powers  of  nature,  whether  in  the  shape  of  night, 
or  dark  clouds,  or  winter.  In  the  Veda  one  of  the 
principal  representatives  of  that  class  of  demons  is 
Vritra,  literally  the  coverer,  the  hider,  whether  of  light 
or  rain.  Indra,  the  great  solar  deity  of  the  Veda,  is 
emphatically  called  "  Vritrahan,"  the  killer  of  Vritra. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  name  of  Indra,  as  the  su- 
preme deity  of  the  Vedic  pantheon,  is  a  name  of  In- 
dian growth.  Derived  from  the  same  root  as  "  indu," 
drop,  it  represents  the  Jupiter  pluvius,  whose  su- 
premacy among  the  gods  of  India  is  fully  accounted 
for  by  the  climatic  character  of  that  country.  Dyaus, 
i.  e.  Zeus,  the  god  of  the  bright  sky,  the  original  su- 
preme deity  of  the  undivided  Aryans,  was  replaced  in 
India  by  Indra,  who  is  sometimes  called  the  son  of 
Dyaus,  so  that  in  India  the  prophecy  of  Prometheus 
may  be  said  to  have  been  fulfilled,  even  before  it  was 
uttered  under  a  Greek  sky. 

But  though  we  must  not  look  in  Greek  mythology 
for  traces  of  a  name  like  Indra,  which  did  not  spring 
into  existence  before  the  separation  of  the  Aryans,  it 
is  not  impossible  that  some  of  the  names  of  Indra's 
enemies  may  have  been  preserved  in  other  countries. 
These  enemies  were  the  enemies  of  Dvaus  and  other 


180  BELLEROPHON. 

gods  as  well  as  of  Indra ;  and  as  they  belong  to  an 
earlier  period,  the  appearance  of  their  names  in  the 
new  homes  of  the  Aryan  emigrants  could  have  nothing 
to  surprise  us. 

One  of  the  names  belonging  to  this  class  of  beings, 
hostile  to  men  and  the  bright  gods,  and  common  to 
India  and  Greece,  I  observed  many  years  ago,  and 
having  communicated  my  observation  to  several  of  my 
friends,  it  was  mentioned  by  them  even  before  I  found 
an  opportunity  of  laying  it  before  the  public,  and  sup- 
porting it  by  sufficient  proof.  My  excellent  friend, 
Professor  Trithen,  whose  early  death  has  deprived 
Sanskrit  scholarship  of  a  man  of  real  genius  and  high 
promise,  mentioned  my  identification  of  Kerberos  with 
the  Sanskrit  "  sarvara  "  in  a  Paper  read  in  April,  1848, 
and  published  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Philological 
Society ;  "  and  another  learned  friend  of  mine  referred 
to  it  with  approval  a  few  years  later,  though  neither 
of  them  represented  correctly  the  steps  by  which  I  had 
arrived  at  my  conclusion.  My  first  point  was  that,  as 
"  sarvari  "  in  the  Veda  means  the  night,  "  sarvara  " 
must  have  had  the  original  sense  of  dark  or  pale  :  — 

Rv.  V.  52,  3.  "  td  syandraso  na  ukshanaA  ati  skandanti  sarvariA," 
"  These  (the  Storm-gods),  like  powerful  bulls,  rise  over  the  dark  nights 
(or  the  dark  clouds?)." 

My  second  point  was  that  the  r  in  "  sarvara  "  may 
be  dropt,  and  this  I  proved  by  comparing  "  sarvarika," 
a  low,  vile  man,  with  "  savara,"  a  barbarian  ;  or  "  sar- 
vara, " l  mischievous,  nocturnal,  with  "  savara,"  low, 
vile.  I  thus  arrived  at  "  savara,"  as  a  modified  form 

1  Durga,  in  his  Commentary  on  the  NiruTcta  (MS.  E.  I.  H.  357,  p.  223) 
•ays  of  the  Dawn:  "sarvarewa  tamasa  digdhani  sarvadravyani  piakasoda- 
kena  dhautaniva  karoti." 


BELLEKOPHON.  181 

of  "  sarvara,"  in  the  sense  of  dark,  pale,  01*  noctur- 
nal. Lastly,  by  admitting  the  frequent  change  of  r 
into  Z,  I  connected  "  sabala,"  the  Vedic  epithet  of  the 
dog  of  Yama,  the  son  of  Sarama,  with  KeVberos, 
though  I  drew  attention  to  the  difference  in  the  accent 
as  a  point  that  still  required  explanation.  Kerberos, 
therefore,  in  Greek,  would  have  meant  originally  the 
dark  one,  the  dog  of  night,  watching  the  path  to  the 
lower  world.  In  the  Veda  we  find  two  such  dogs,  but 
they  have  not  yet  received  any  proper  names,  and  are 
without  that  individuality  which  was  imparted  to  them 
by  later  legends.  All  we  learn  of  them  from  the  Veda 
is  that  they  have  four  eyes  and  broad  snouts,  that  their 
color  is  dark  or  tawny,  that  they  guard  the  road  to  the 
abode  of  Yama,  the  king  of  the  departed,  and  that  the 
dead  must  pass  by  them  before  they  can  come  to  Yama 
and  the  Fathers.  They  are  also  said  to  move  about 
among  men,  as  the  messengers  of  Yama,  to  feast  on 
the  life  of  men,  so  that  Yama  is  implored  to  protect 
men  from  their  fury,  while,  in  other  places,  they  them- 
selves are  invoked,  like  Yama  and  Mrityu,  to  grant  a 
long  life  to  man.  As  the  offspring  of  Sarama,  they 
are  called  Sarameya;  but  they  have,  as  yet,  no  real 
proper  names.  The  same  applies  to  Kerberos.  His 
proper  name  does  not  occur  in  Homer,  but  the  dog 
of  Hades  in  Erebos  is  mentioned  by  him  without 
further  particulars.  Hesiod  is  the  first  who  mentions 
the  name  and  genealogy  of  Kerberos,  and  with  him 
he  is  already  fifty-headed,  brazen-voiced,  and  furious, 
.^ater  poets  speak  of  hirn  as  three-headed,  with  ser- 
pents for  his  tail  and  mane  ;  and  at  last  he  becomes 
hundred-headed.  This  Kerberos,  as  we  know,  is  seized 
by  Herakles  and  brought  up  to  the  daylight,  though 
thrown  back  again  into  Hades. 


182  BELLERUrHON. 

But,  besides  Kerberos,  there  is  another  dog  con- 
quered by  Herakles,  and  as  he,  like  Kerberos,  is  born 
of  Typhaon  and  Echidna,  we  may  well  look  upon  him 
as  the  brother  or  ditto  of  Kerberos.  He  is  the  dog  of 

O 

Geryones,  sometimes  called  Kerberos  himself  ("  Pal- 
aeph."  40)  ;  and  as  Herakles,  before  conquering  Ker- 
beros, has  first  to  struggle  with  Menoetios,  the  cowherd, 
we  find  that  in  his  eighth  labor,  too,  Herakles  has  to 
struggle  with  the  cowherd  Eurytion  and  his  dog ;  nay, 
according  to  some  authorities,  Menoetios  himself  takes 
part  again  in  this  struggle.  This  second  dog  is  known 
by  the  name  of  "  Orthros,"  the  exact  copy,  I  believe, 
of  the  Vedic  Vritra.  That  the  Vedic  Vritra  should 
appear  in  Greece  in  the  shape  of  a  dog,  need  not  sur- 
prise us,  particularly  as  there  are  traces  to  show  that 
in  Greek  mythology  also  he  was  originally  a  monster 
of  a  less  definite  character.  We  find  him,  in  Hesiod's 
"  Theogony,"  v.  308  seq.,  among  the  children  of 
Echidna  and  Typhaon  :  — 

q  S'  viroKvo-ancvri  T«€TO  Kpartpo-ppova.  T«va, 
"OpOpOv  pev  irpiarov  KVVH  ytiva.ro  Vripvovyi. 
Sevrepov  aSns  crucTer  dfiyxavov,  ovn  <f>arei6v 
TLepffepov,  <a/i.T)a~nji>t  'AtSfia  KVVO.  \a.\K  f6i}><avov, 
irtvn]icOvTajca.pT)vov,  dvaiSia.  re  Kparepov  re. 

Soon  after,  "Opflpos,  for  this  is,  no  doubt,  the  right 
reading,  instead  of  "OP0os,  is  called  the  parent  of  the 
Nemsean  lion.  And  what  indicates  still  more  the  orig- 
inal meaning  of  "O/jtfpos  as  a  representative  of  darkness 
struggling  with  light,  is  the  idiomatic  use  of  opOpos  as 
signifying  the  time  before  sunrise.  Thus  we  read  in 
Hesiod,  "  O.  D."  575,  opOpov  dviora/ievos,  rising  early, 
t.  e.  while  the  darkness  still  reigns,  and  while  the  last 
portion  of  the  night  is  not  yet  driven  away  by  the 


BELLEROPHON.  183 

dawn  (Centre  chien  et  loup).  The  swallow,  too,  is  called 
opdpoyorj  (568),  literally  "  the  early  wailing ;  "  the  cock 
6p0po/3oas,  the  earlier  caller.  Thus  we  read  in  Horn. 
"  Hymn.  Merc."  98,  — 

bp<pvaly  &'  eiri'icovpoj  ejraucro  Sainovii)  vvf, 
T;  n\fitav,  Ta.\a  5'  opQpos  eyiyvero  STj/xioepyO;, 

where  op#pos  might  simply  be  translated  by  Vritra,  if 
we  consider  how,  in  Vedic  phraseology,  Vritra  is  the 
thief  who  keeps  the  cows  or  the  rays  of  the  morning 
shut  up  in  his  stable,  and  how  the  first  peep  of  day  is 
expressed  by  Sarama  discovering  the  dark  stables  of 
Vritra  and  the  Panis.  Of  Hermes  (the  Sarameya)  it 
is  said  (v.  145)  that  he  comes  op$pu>s,  i.  e.  with  Vritra, 
at  the  time  of  the  final  discomfiture  of  Vritra,1  and 
that  he  comes  silently,  so  that  not  even  the  dogs  bark 

at   llim,    OVT£   KWes  XeXttKOVTO. 

Thus  we  discover  in  Herakles,  the  victor  of  Orthros, 
a  real  Vritrahan,  what  might  have  been  in  Greek  an 
'Op6po<f>C)v  or  'Op6po4>6vi"r]s ;  and,  though  the  names  may 
differ,  we  now  see  in  BeXXepo^wv  or  BcXXepo^d^^s,  who 
killed,  if  not  a  he-goat  (Tirana),  at  least  a  she-goat,  i.  e. 
Xt/xaipa,  a  mere  variation  of  the  same  solar  hero,  and 
a  reflection  of  the  Vedic  Indra  Vritrahan.  Chimsera, 
like  Orthros  and  Kerberos,  is  a  being  with  three  heads 
or  three  bodies  (rptc-w/Aaros  and  rptKe^aXos)  ;  nay,  like 
Orthros  and  Kerberos,  Chimaera,  too,  is  the  offspring  of 
Typhaon  and  Echidna. 

Nay,  further,  although  the  name  of  'Op0po<£wv  or 
'Op^po^ovTTjs  has  not  been  preserved  in  Greek  mythol- 
ogy, it  is  possible,  I  think,  to  discover  in  Greek  traces 
of  another  name,  having  the  same  import  in  Sanskrit, 

1  The  same  place  where  Vritra  lies  (i.  52, 6,  "  r&g&ssJi  budhnam  ")  is  also 
tailed  the  birthplace  of  Indra,  iv.  1, 11. 


184  BELLEROPHON. 

and  frequently  used  as  a  synonym  of  "  vritrahan." 
This  is  "  dasyuban,"  the  killer  of  Dasyu.  "  Dasyu  " 
or  "  dasa  "  is  in  the  Veda  the  general  name  of  the 
enemies  of  the  bright  gods,  as  well  as  of  their  wor- 
shippers, the  Aryan  settlers  of  India.  "  Dasyuhanta  " 
or  "  dasa-hanta  "  would  in  Greek  assume  the  form  of 
8€oj<£(Wr?s,  or,  as  in  some  places  of  ancient  Greece  8  was 
pronounced  like  A,1  this  might  assume  the  form  of 
AeoDc^ovnfs.  Now  this  Leophontes  occurs  in  Greek  my- 
thology as  another  name  of  Bellerophon,  and  it  is  clear 
that  the  meaning  of  that  name  could  not  have  been 
lion-killer,  for  that  would  have  been  Leontophontes, 
but  that  it  could  only  signify  killer  of  whatever  is  ex- 
pressed by  Aeco  or  Sew. 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  change  of  d  into  I  is  in 
Greek  restricted  to  certain  dialects,  and  that  it  cannot 


1  That  d  and  I  are  interchangeable  letters  is  perfectly  true,  but  this  gen- 
eral rule  is  liable  to  many  limitations  as  applied  to  different  languages.  An 
original  I,  for  instance,  is  hardly  ever  changed  to  d,  and  hence  the  deriva- 
tion of  lingua  from  lih,  to  lick,  is  very  doubtful;  for  dingua,  which  is  men- 
tioned as  the  older  form  of  linyita,  could  well  have  been  changed  to  linyua, 
but  not  vice  versa.  On  the  same  ground  I  doubt  whether  in  adeps  the  d 
represents  an  original  Aryan  I,  although  the  Greek  atevpa,  ointment.  Xiiro, 
fat,  and  Sanskrit "  lip,"  to  anoint,  would  seem  to  support  this  view.  My 
former  identification  of  /ueXe-row  and  meditor  is  equally  untenable.  All  we 
can  say  for  certain  is  that  an  original  or  Aryan  d  may  become  I  in  Larin: 
e.  ff.  Sansk.  "  devara,"  Greek  Sarjp  =  Lat.  levir  ;  Sansk.  "  dih,"  Goth. 
"  deiga  "=  Lat.  pol-linqo ;  Greek  &a.Kpv,  Goth.  "  tagr  "  =  Lat.  lacru-mn ; 
Greek  &ipaf  =  Lat.  lorica ;  Greek  'OSwaev's  =  Lat.  Ulyxes.  In  Latin  itself  an 
original  d  changes  dialectically  with  /,  as  in  odor  and  olfaclt ;  impedimenta 
and  impelimenta ;  dtdicare  and  dtlicare  ;  cassida  and.  cassila  ;  sedere  and 
snlium;  presidium  and  prcesilium,  and  sul  m  prcesul,  etc.;  danfia  and  lautia; 
dingun.  ("  tuggo  "  Goth.)  and  linffim;  Medicce  and  Melicce ;  rediria  and  relu- 
mum,  if  from  reduo,  like  iiiduvice.  and  not  from  luo,  as  proposed  by  Festus; 
Diumpais  (Osc.)  and  lymphis  ;  Akudunnia  (Osk.)  and  Aquilonia,  of  unknown 
origin,  but  with  original  d,  as  proved  even  by  the  modern  name  "  Lace- 
dogna."  In  Greek  the  same  dialectic  change  is  recorded  in  X 
Atffitos=  SICTKOS,  'OX"<r<revs  =•  'OSt'o-crevs. 


RELLKROl'HON.  185 

be  admitted  as  a  general  rule,  unless  there  be  some 
new  evidence  to  that  effect.  Were  it  not  so,  one 
might  feel  inclined  to  trace  even  the  common  Greek 
word  for  people  Aao's,  back  to  the  same  source  as  the 
Sanskrit,  "  dasa."  For  "  dasyu,"  meaning  originally 
enemies,  hastes,  assumed  in  Zend  "  dardm  "  and 
"  daqyu,  the  sense  of  province, — a  transition  of  mean- 
ing which  is  rendered  intelligible  by  the  use  of 
"  dahyu  "  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  where  Darius 
calls  himself  king  of  Persia  and  king  of  the  Dahyus, 
i.  e.  of  the  conquered  people  or  provinces.1  The  same 
transition  of  meaning  must  be  admitted  in  Greek,  if, 

O  77 

as  Professor  Pott  suggests,  the  Greek  8eo--7ror^s  and 
SeV-TT-otra  correspond  to  Sanskrit  "  dasa-pati  "  and 
"  diisd-patni,"  in  the  sense  of  lord  of  subjects.  The 
only  difficulty  here,  would  be  the  retention  of  the  s  of 
dasa,''  which,  according  to  general  practice,  would 
have  been  dropt  between  two  vowels.  The  true  form 
of  "dasa."  in  Greek  would  be  Sctos  or  Sew?.  Auo's  is 
well  known  as  a  name  of  slaves,  but  it  admits  of  a  dif- 
ferent explanation.2  The  adjective  8aVos,  however,  or 
STJI'OS,  hostile,  is  clearly  derived  from  the  same  source, 
the  root  being  "  das,"  to  perish ;  though  it  is  true  that  in 
its  frequent  application  to  fire,  the  adjective  Sa't'os  might 
also  be  referred  to  the  root  "  dn,"  to  burn.3  After 
we  have  once  discovered  on  Greek  soil  the  traces  of 
"dasa"  in  the  sense  of  enemy,  we  see  clearly  that 
Leophontes,  as  the  name  of  Bellerophon,  could  not 
have  meant  originally  the  killer  of  the  people,  but  only 

1  Lassen,  Zeitschriflfiirdie  Kundedes  Morgenlandes,  vol.  vi.  p.  12. 

2  See  Niebuhr,  Kleinere  Schriften,  vol.  i.  p.  377. 

8  See  Aufrecht,  in  Kuhn's   Zeitschrift,  vol.  vii.  p.  312;  Pott,  Ib.  voL 
viii.  p.  428. 


186  BELLEEOPHON. 

the  killer  of  enemies.  And  if  Leophontes  meant  the 
killer  of  enemies  or  fiends,  it  can  only  be  explained 
as  corresponding  to  the  Sanskrit  "  dasahanta,"  the 
destroyer  of  enemies,  these  enemies  being  the  very 
"  Dasas  "  or  demons  of  the  Veda,  such  as  Vritra 
("O/30pos),  Namu&i  ('A/xu/cos),1  *Sambara,2  and  others. 

November,  1855.8 

*  A.  Pick,  in  Benfey's  Orient  und  Occident,  vol.  Hi.  p.  126. 

2  Sambara,  a  very  common  name  of  a  demon  slain  by  Indra,  invites 
comparison  with  "sabara"  and  "  sarbara,"  the  Sinskrit  original  of  Ker- 
oeros.  In  the  Zend-Avesta,  too,  "srvara"  occurs  as  the  name  of  a  ser- 
pent ("  azhi  "). 

8  Some  critical  remarks  on  the  subject  of  this  article  may  be  seen  in  Pro- 
fessor Pott's  £tymologische  Forschungen,  second  edition,  vol.  ii.  o.  744. 


XX. 

THE  NORSEMEN  IN  ICELAND.1 


THERE  is,  after  Anglo-Saxon,  no  language,  no  litera- 
ture, no  mythology  so  full  of  interest  for  the  elucidation 
of  the  earliest  history  of  the  race  which  now  inhabits 
these  British  Isles  as  the  Icelandic.  Nay,  in  one  re- 
spect, Icelandic  beats  every  other  dialect  of  the  great 
Teutonic  family  of  speech,  not  excepting  Anglo-Saxon 
and  Old  High-German  and  Gothic.  It  is  in  Icelandic 
alone  that  we  find  complete  remains  of  genuine  Teu- 
tonic heathendom.  Gothic,  as  a  language,  is  more 
ancient  than  Icelandic ;  but  the  only  literary  work 
which  we  possess  in  Gothic  is  a  translation  of  the 
Bible.  The  Anglo-Saxon  literature,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  "  Beowulf,"  is  Christian.  The  old  heroes  of 
the  "  Nibelunge,"  such  as  we  find  them  represented  in 
the  Suabian  epic,  have  been  converted  into  church- 
going  knights ;  whereas,  in  the  ballads  of  the  elder 
"  Edda,"  Sigurd  and  Brynhild  appear  before  us  in  their 
full  pagan  grandeur,  holding  nothing  sacred  but  their 
love,  and  defying  all  laws,  human  and  divine,  in  the 
name  of  that  one  almighty  passion.  The  Icelandic 
contains  the  key  to  many  a  riddle  in  the  English  Ian 

1  Ths  WorKmen  in  Iceland.    By  Dr.  G.  W.  Dasent     Oxford  Essayg, 
1858. 


188         THE  NORSEMEN  IN  ICELAND. 

guage,  and  tr  many  a  mystery  in  the  English  character. 
Thouffh  the  Old  Norse  is  but  a  dialect  of  the  same 

O 

language  which  the  Angles  and  Saxons  brought  to 
Britain,  though  the  Norman  blood  is  the  same  blood 

7  O 

that  floods  and  ebbs  in  every  German  heart,  yet  there 
is  an  accent  of  defiance  in  that  rugged  Northern 
speech,  and  a  spring  of  daring  madness  in  that  throb- 
bing Northern  heart,  which  marks  the  Northman 
jvherever  he  appears,  whether  in  Iceland  or  in  Sicily, 
whether  on  the  Seine  or  on  the  Thames.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  ninth  century,  when  the  great  Northern 
exodus  began,  Europe,  as  Dr.  Dasent  remarks,  "  was 
in  danger  of  becoming  too  comfortable.  The  two  na- 
tions destined  to  run  neck-and-neci'  in  the  great  race 
of  civilization,  Frank  and  Anglo-SiuTon,  had  a  tendency 
to  become  dull  and  lazy,  and  neither  could  arrive  at 
perfection  till  it  had  been  chastised  by  the  Norsemen, 
and  finally  forced  to  admit  an  infusion  of  Northern 
blood  into  its  sluggish  veins.  The  vigor  of  the  various 
brahcnes  of  the  Teutonic  stock  may  be  measured  by 
the  proportion  of  Norman  blood  which  they  received; 
and  the  national  character  of  England  owes  more  to  the 
descendants  of  Hrolf  Ganger  than  to  the  followers  of 
Hengist  and  Horsa." 

But  what  is  known  of  the  early  history  of  the 
Norsemen?  Theirs  was  the  life  of  reckless  freeloot- 
ers,  and  they  had  no  tirm  to  dream  and  ponder  on  the 
past,  whicn  they  had  left  behind  in  Norway.  Where 
they  settled  as  colonists  or  as  rulers,  their  own  tradi- 
tions, their  very  language,  were  soon  forgotten.  Their 
language  has  nowhere  struck  root  on  foreign  ground, 
even  where,  as  in  Normandy,  they  became  earls  of 
Rouen,  or,  as  in  these  isles,  kings  of  England.  There 


THE  NORSEMEN  IN   ICELAND.  189 

is  but  one  exception  —  Iceland.  Iceiand  was  discov- 
ered, peopled,  and  civilized  by  Norsemen  in  the  ninth 
century ;  and  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  language 
spoken  there  is  still  the  dialect  of  Harold  Fairhair,  and 
the  stories  told  there  are  still  the  stories  of  the  "  Edda," 
or  the  Venerable  Grandmother.  Dr.  Dasent  gives  us 
a  rapid  sketch  of  the  first  landings  of  the  Norwegian 
refugees  on  the  fells  and  forths  of  Iceland.  He  de- 
scribes how  love  of  freedom  drove  the  subjects  of 
Harold  Fairhair  forth  from  their  home  ;  how  the  Teu- 
tonic tribes,  though  they  loved  their  kings,  the  sons  of 
Odin,  and  sovereigns  by  the  grace  of  God,  detested 
the  dictatorship  of  Harold.  "  He  was  a  mighty  war- 
rior," so  says  the  ancient  Saga,  "and  laid  Norway 
under  him,  and  put  out  of  the  way  some  of  those  who 
held  districts,  and  some  of  them  he  drove  out  of  the 
land  ;  and,  besides,  many  men  escaped  out  of  Norway 
because  of  the  overbearing  of  Harold  Fairhair,  for 
they  would  not  stay  to  be  subject  to  him."  These 
early  emigrants  were  Pagans,  and  it  was  not  till  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century  that  Christianity  reached  the 
Ultima  Thnle  of  Europe.  The  missionaries,  however, 
who  converted  the  freemen  of  Iceland  were  freemen 
themselves.  They  did  not  come  with  the  pomp  and 
the  pretensions  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  They 
preached  Christ  rather  than  the  Pope ;  they  taught 
religion  rather  than  theology.  Nor  were  they  afraid 
of  the  old  heathen  gods,  or  angry  with  every  custom 
that  was  not  of  Christian  growth.  Sometimes  this 
tolerance  may  have  been  carried  too  far,  for  we  read 
of  kings,  like  Helgi,  "  mixed  in  their  faith,  who  trusted 
in  Christ,  but  at  the  same  time  invoked  Thor's  aid 
whenever  they  went  to  sea,  or  got  into  any  difficulty." 


190  THE  NORSEMEN   IN  ICELAND. 

But  on  the  whole,  the  kindly  feeling  of  the  Icelandic 
priesthood  toward  the  national  traditions  and  customs 
and  prejudices  of  their  converts  must  have  been  bene- 
ficial. Sons  and  daughters  were  not  forced  to  call  the 
gods  whom  their  fathers  and  mothers  had  worshipped, 
devils  ;  and  they  were  allowed  to  use  the  name  of 
"  Allfadir,"  whom  they  had  invoked  in  the  prayers  of 
their  childhood  when  praying  to  Him  who  is  "  Our 
Father  in  Heaven." 

The  Icelandic  missionaries  had  peculiar  advantages 
in  their  relation  to  the  system  of  paganism  which  they 
came  to  combat.  Nowhere  else,  perhaps,  in  the  whole 
history  of  Christianity,  has  the  missionary  been  brought 
face  to  face  with  a  race  of  gods  who  were  believed  by 
their  own  worshippers  to  be  doomed  to  death.  The 
missionaries  had  only  to  proclaim  that  Balder  was  dead, 
that  the  mighty  Odin  and  Thor  were  dead.  The 
people  knew  that  these  gods  were  to  die,  and  the  mes- 
sage of  the  One  Ever-living  God  must  have  touched 
their  ears  and  their  hearts  with  comfort  and  joy. 
Thus,  while  in  Germany  the  priests  were  occupied  for 
a  long  time  in  destroying  every  trace  of  heathenism,  in 
condemning  every  ancient  lay  as  the  work  of  the  devil, 
in  felling  sacred  trees  and  abolishing  national  customs, 
the  missionaries  of  Iceland  were  able  to  take  a  more 
charitable  view  of  the  past,  and  they  became  the 
keepers  of  those  very  poems,  and  laws,  and  proverbs, 
and  Runic  inscriptions,  which  on  the  Continent  had  to 
be  put  down  with  inquisitorial  cruelty.  The  men  to 
whom  the  collection  of  the  ancient  pagan  poetry  of 
Iceland  is  commoiily  ascribed,  were  men  of  Christian 
learning  :  the  one,  the  founder  of  a  public  school ;  the 
other,  famous  as  the  author  of  a  history  of  the  North 


THE  NORSEMEN  IN  ICELAND.          191 

the  "  Heimskringla."  It  is  owing  to  their  labors  that 
we  know  anything  of  the  ancient  religion,  the  tradi- 
tions, the  maxims,  the  habits  of  the  Norsemen,  and  it 
is  from  these  sources  that  Dr.  Dasent  has  drawn  his 
stores  of  information,  and  composed  his  vigorous  and 
living  sketch  of  primitive  Northern  life.  It  is  but  a 
sketch,  but  a  sketch  that  will  bear  addition  and  com- 
pletion. Dr.  Dasent  dwells  most  fully  on  the  religious 
system  of  Iceland,  which  is  the  same,  at  least  in  its 
general  outline,  as  that  believed  in  by  all  the  members 
of  the  Teutonic  family,  and  may  truly  be  called  one 
of  the  various  dialects  of  the  primitive  religious  and 
mythological  language  of  the  Aryan  race.  There  is 
nothing  more  interesting  than  religion  in  the  whole 
history  of  man.  By  its  side,  poetry  and  art,  science 
and  law,  sink  into  comparative  insignificance.  Dr. 
Dasent,  however,  has  not  confined  his  essay  to  the  re- 
ligious life  of  Iceland.  He  has  added  some  minute 

O 

descriptions  of  the  domestic  habits,  the  dress,  the 
armor,  the  diet,  the  laws,  and  the  customs  of  the  race, 
and  he  has  proved  himself  well  at  home  in  the  Icelan- 
dic homestead.  One  thing  only  we  miss,  —  an  account 
of  their  epic  poetry  ;  and  this,  we  believe,  would  on 
several  points  have  furnished  a  tinier  picture  of  the 
very  early  and  purely  pagan  life  of  the  Norsemen  than 
the  extracts  from  their  histories  and  law  books,  which 
are  more  or  less,  if  not  under  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity, at  least  touched  by  the  spirit  of  a  more  ad- 
vanced civilization.  The  old  poems,  in  their  alliter- 
ating metre,  were  proof  against  later  modifications. 
We  probably  possess  what  we  do  possess  of  them,  in 
its  original  form.  As  they  were  composed  in  Norway 
in  the  sixth  century  after  Christ,  they  were  carried  to 


192  THE  NORSEMEN   IN  ICELAND. 

Iceland  in  the  ninth,  and  written  down  in  the  eleventh 
century.  The  prose  portions  of  the  "  Old  Edda,"  and 
still  more  of  the  "Young  Edda,"  may  be  of  later 
origin.  They  betray  in  many  instances  the  hand  of  a 
Christian  writer.  And  the  same  applies  to  the  later 
Sagas  and  law  books.  Here  much  is  still  to  be  done  by 
the  critic,  and  we  look  forward  with  great  interest  to 
a  fuller  inquiry  into  the  age  of  the  various  parts  of  Ice- 
landic literature,  the  history  of  the  MSS.,  the  genuine- 
ness of  their  titles,  and  similar  questions.  Such  sub- 
jects are  hardly  fit  for  popular  treatment,  and  we  do 
not  blame  Dr.  Dasent  for  having  passed  them  over  in 
his  essay.  But  the  translator  of  the  younger  "  Edda  " 
ought  to  tell  us  hereafter  what  is  the  history  of  this, 
and  of  the  older  collection  of  Icelandic  poetry.  How 
do  we  know,  for  instance,  that  Saemund  (1056—1133) 
collected  the  Old,  Snorro  Sturlason  (1178-1241)  the 
Young  «  Edda?"  How  do  we  know  that  the  MSS. 

C3 

which  we  now  possess,  have  a  right  to  the  title  of 
"Edda?"  All  this  rests,  as  far  as  we  know,  on  the 
authority  of  Bishop  Brynjulf  Swendsen,  who  discovered 
the  "  Codex  regius  "  in  1643,  and  wrote  on  the  copy  of 
it,  with  his  own  hand,  the  title  of  "  Edda  Ssemundar 
hinns  froda."  None  of  the  MSS.  of  the  second,  or  prose 
"  Edda,"  bear  that  title  in  any  well-authenticated  form ; 
still  less  is  it  known  whether  Snorro  composed  either 
part  or  the  whole  of  it.  All  these  questions  ought  to  be 
answered,  as  far  as  they  can  be  answered,  before  we 
can  hope  to  see  the  life  of  the  ancient  Norsemen  drawn 
with  truthfulness  and  accuracy.  The  greater  part  of 
the  poems,  however,  bear  an  expression  of  genuineness 
which  cannot  be  challenged ;  and  a  comparison  of  the 
mythology  of  the  "  Edda  "  with  that  of  the  Teutonic 


THE   NORSEMEN  IN   ICELAND.  193 

tribes,  and  again,  in  a  more  general  manner,  with  that 
of  the  other  Indo-Germanic  races,  is  best  calculated  to 
convince  the  skeptic  that  the  names  and  the  legends  of 
the  Eddie  gods  are  not  of  late  invention.  There  are 
passages  in  the  "  Edda  "  which  sound  like  verses  from 
the  Veda.  Dr.  Dasent  quotes  the  following  lines  from 
the  elder  "  Edda  :  "  — 

"  'Twas  the  morning  of  time, 
When  yet  naught  was, 
Nor  sand  nor  sea  were  there, 
Nor  cooling  streams; 
Earth  was  not  formed, 
Nor  heaven  above ; 
A  yawning  gap  there  was, 
And  grass  nowhere." 

A  hymn  of  the  Veda  begins  in  a  very  similar  way :  — 

"  Nor  Aught  nor  Naught  existed ;  yon  bright  sky 
Was  not,  nor  heaven's  broad  woof  outstretched  above. 
What  covered  all?  what  sheltered?  what  concealed? 
Was  it  the  waters  fathomless  abyss?  ''  etc. 

There  are  several  mythological  expressions  common 
to  the  "  Edda  "  and  Homer.  In  the  "  Edda,"  man  is 
said  to  have  been  created  out  of  an  ash-tree.  In  He- 
siod,  Zeus  creates  the  third  race  of  men  out  of  ash- 
trees  ;  and  that  this  tradition  was  not  unknown  to 
Homer,  we  learn  from  Penelope's  address  to  Ulysses : 
"  Tell  me  thy  family,  from  whence  thou  art ;  for  thou 
art  not  sprung  from  the  olden  tree,  or  from  the  rock." 

There  are,  however,  other  passages  in  the  "  Edda," 
particularly  in  the  prose  "  Edda,"  which  ought  to  be 
carefully  examined  before  they  are  admitted  as  evidence 
on  the  primitive  paganism  of  the  Norsemen.  The 
prose  "  Edda"  was  written  by  a  man  who  mixed  clas- 
sical learning  and  Christian  ideas  with  Northern  tradi- 
tions. This  is  clearly  seen  in  the  preface.  But  traces 

VOL.  U.  13 


194  THE  NORSEMEN  IN  ICELAND. 

of  the  same  influence  may  be  discovered  in  other  parts, 
as,  for  instance,  in  the  dialogue  called  "  G}'lh"s  Mock- 
ing." The  ideas  which  it  contains  are  meant  to  be 

O 

pagan,  but  are  they  really  pagan  in  their  origin  ?  Dr. 
Dasent  gives  the  following  extract :  — 

"  Who  is  first  and  eldest  of  all  gods  ?  He  is  called 
"  Allfadir  "  (the  Father  of  All,  the  Great  Father)  in 
our  tongue.  He  lives  from  all  ages,  and  rules  over  his 
realm,  and  sways  all  things,  great  and  small.  He  made 
heaven  and  earth,  and  the  sky,  and  all  that  belongs  to 
them ;  and  he  made  man,  and  gave  him  a  soul  that 
shall  live  and  never  perish,  though  the  body  rot  to 
mould  or  burn  to  ashes.  All  men  that  are  right-minded 

O 

shall  live  and  be  with  him  in  the  place  called  "  Vin- 
golf : "  but  Avicked  ones  fare  to  Hell,  and  thence  into 
Niflhell,  that  is,  beneath  in  the  ninth  world." 

We  ask  Dr.  Dasent,  Is  this  pure,  genuine,  unsophis- 
ticated paganism?  Is  it  language  that  Sigurd  and 
Brynhild  would  have  understood  ?  Is  that  "  Allfadir  "' 
really  nothing  more  than  Odin,  who  himself  must  per- 
•'sh,  and  whom  at  the  day  of  doom  the  wolf,  the  Fenris- 
tfolf,  was  to  swallow  at  one  gulp  ?  We  can  only  ask 
the  question  here,  but  we  doubt  not  that  in  his  next 
work  on  the  antiquities  of  the  Northern  races,  Dr. 
Dasent  will  give  us  a  full  and  complete  answer,  and 
thus  satisfy  the  curiosity  which  he  has  raised  by  his 
valuable  contribution  to  the  "  Oxford  Essays." 
JTirfy  1358 


XXI. 

FOLK-LORE.1 


As  the  science  of  language  has  supplied  a  new  basis 
for  the  science  of  mythology,  the  science  of  mythology 
bids  fair,  in  its  turn,  to  open  the  way  to  a  new  and 
scientific  study  of  the  folk-lore  of  the  Aryan  nations. 
Not  only  have  the  radical  and  formal  elements  of  lan- 
guage been  proved  to  be  the  same  in  India,  Greece, 
Italy,  among  the  Celtic,  Teutonic,  and  Slavonic  na- 
tions ;  not  only  have  the  names  of  many  of  their  gods, 
the  forms  of  their  worship,  and  the  mainsprings  of  their 
religious  sentiment  been  traced  back  to  one  common 
Aryan  source  ;  but  a  further  advance  has  been  made. 
A  myth,  it  was  argued,  dwindles  down  to  a  legend,  a 
legend  to  the  tale ;  and  if  the  myths  were  originally 
identical  in  India,  Greece,  Italy,  and  Germany,  why 
should  not  the  tales  also  of  these  countries  show  some 
similarity  even  in  the  songs  of  the  Indian  ayah  and 
.he  English  nurse?  There  is  some  truth  in  this  line 
ol'  argument,  but  there  is  likewise  great  clanger  of  error. 
Granted  that  words  and  myths  were  originally  identi- 
cal among  all  the  members  of  the  Aryan  family ;  granted 
likewise  that  they  all  went  through  the  same  vicissi- 

l  Curiosities  of  Indo-European  Tradition  and  Folk  Lore.     By    W.  K. 
Kelly.     London :  Chapman  &  Hall.     1883. 


196  FOLK-LORE. 

tudes  ;  would  it  not  follow  that,  as  no  sound  scholar 
thinks  of  comparing  Hindustani  and  English,  or  Ital- 
ian and  Russian,  no  attempt  at  comparing  the  modern 
tales  of  Europe  to  the  modern  tales  of  India  could 
ever  lead  to  any  satisfactory  results  ?  The  tales,  or 
"  Mahrchen,"  are  the  modern  patois  of  mythology,  and 
if  they  are  to  become  the  subject  of  scientific  treat- 
ment, the  first  task  that  has  to  be  accomplished  is  to 
trace  back  each  modern  tale  to  some  earlier  legend,  and 
eacli  legend  to  some  primitive  myth.  And  here  it  is  very 
important  to  remark  that,  although  originally  our  pop- 
ular tales  were  reproductions  of  more  ancient  legends, 
yet  after  a  time  a  general  taste  was  created  for  marvel- 
ous stories,  and  new  ones  were  invented,  in  large  num- 
bers whenever  they  were  required,  by  every  grand- 
mother and  every  nurse.  Even  in  these  purely  imagina- 
tive tales,  analogies  may  no  doubt  be  discovered  with 
more  genuine  tales,  because  they  were  made  after  orig- 
inal patterns,  and  in  many  cases,  were  mere  variations 
of  an  ancient  air.  But  if  we  tried  to  analyze  them  by 
the  same  tests  as  the  genuine  tales,  if  we  attempted 
to  recognize  in  them  the  features  of  ancient  legends, 
or  to  discover  in  these  fanciful  strains  the  key-notes 
of  sacred  mythology,  we  should  certainly  share  the 
fate  of  those  valiant  knights  who  were  led  through 
an  enchanted  forest  by  the  voices  of  fairies  till  they 
found  themselves  landed  in  a  bottomless  quagmire. 
Jacob  Grimm,  as  Mr.  Kelly  tells  us  in  his  work  on 
"  Indo-European  Tradition  and  Folk-Lore,"  was  the 
first  scholar  who  pointed  out  the  importance  of  collect- 
ing all  that  could  be  saved  of  popular  stories,  customs, 
sayings,  superstitions,  and  beliefs.  His  "  German  My- 
thology is  a  store-house  of  such  curiosities,  and,  to 


FOLK-LORE.  197 

gether  with  his  collection  of  "  Mahrehen,"  it  shows 
how  much  there  is  still  floating  about  of  the  most  an- 

O 

cient  language,  thought,  fancy,  and  belief,  that  might 
be,  and  ought  to  be  collected  in  every  part  of  tho 
world.  The  Norse  Tales  lately  published  by  Dr. 
Dasent  are  another  instance  that  shows  how  much 
there  is  to  reward  the  labors  of  a  careful  collector 
and  a  thoughtful  interpreter.  Sufficient  material  has 
been  collected  to  enable  scholars  to  see  that  these 
tales  and  translations  are  not  arbitrary  inventions  or 
modern  fictions,  but  that  their  fibres  cling  in  many  in- 
stances to  the  very  germs  of  ancient  language  and  an- 
cient thought.  Among  those  who,  in  Germany,  have 
followed  in  the  track  of  Grimm,  and  endeavored  to  trace 
the  modern  folk-lore  back  to  its  most  primitive  sources, 
the  names  of  Kuhn,  Schwartz,  Mannhardt,  and  Wolf 
held  a  prominent  place  ;  and  it  has  been  the  object  of 
Mr.  Kelly  to  make  known  to  us  in  his  book  the  most 
remarkable  discoveries  which  have  been  achieved  by 
the  successors  and  countrymen  of  Jacob  Grimm  in  this 
field  of  antiquarian  research. 

Mr.  Kelly  deserves  great  credit  for  the  pains  he  has 
taken  in  mastering  this  difficult  subject,  but  we  regret 
the  form  in  which  he  has  thought  fit  to  communicate 
to  an  English  public  the  results  of  his  labors.  He 
tells  us  that  a  work  by  Dr.  Kuhn,  "  On  the  Descent 
of  Fire  and  the  Drink  of  the  Gods,"  is  his  chief  author- 
ity ;  but  he  adds :  — 

"  Although  the  very  different  nature  of  my  work  has 
seldom  allowed  me  to  translate  two  or  three  consecu- 
tive sentences  from  Dr.  Kuhn's  elaborate  treatise,  yet 
I  wish  it  to  be  fully  understood  that,  but  for  the  latter, 
the  former  could  not  have  been  written.  I  am  the  more 


198  FOLK-LOBE. 

bound  to  state  this  once  for  all,  as  emphatically  as  I 
can,  because  the  very  extent  of  ray  indebtedness  has 
hindered  me  from  acknowledging  my  obligations  to  Dr. 
Kuhn,  in  the  text  or  in  foot-notes,  as  constantly  as  I 
have  done  in  most  other  cases." 

We  cannot  help  considering  this  an  unsatisfactory 
arrangement.  If  Mr.  Kelly  had  given  a  translation  of 
Dr.  Kuhn's  essay,  English  readers  would  have  known 
whom  to  hold  responsible  for  the  statements,  many  of 
them  very  startling,  as  to  the  coincidences  in  the  tales 
and  traditions  of  the  Aryan  nations.  Or,  again,  if 
Mr.  Kelly  had  written  a  book  of  his  own,  we  should 
have  had  the  same  advantage  ;  for  he  would,  no  doubt, 
have  considered  himself  bound  to  substantiate  every 
fact  quoted  from  the  "  Edda  "  or  from  the  Veda  by  a 
suitable  reference.  As  it  is,  the  reader's  curiosity  is 
certainly  excited  to  the  highest  degree,  but  his  incredu- 
lity is  in  no  way  relieved.  Mr.  Kelly  does  not  tell  us 
that  he  is  a  Sanskrit  or  an  Icelandic  scholar,  and  hence 
we  naturally  infer  that  his  assertions  about  the  gods  of 
the  Indian  and  Northern  pantheons  are  borrowed  from 
Dr.  Kuhn  and  other  German  writers.  But,  if  so,  it 
would  have  been  far  preferable  to  give  the  ipsissima 
verba  of  these  scholars,  because,  in  descriptions  of 
ancient  forms  of  belief  or  superstition,  the  slightest 
change  of  expression  is  apt  to  change  the  whole  bear- 
ing of  a  sentence.  Many  of  Dr.  Kuhn's  opinions  have 
been  challenged  and  controverted  by  his  own  country- 
men, —  by  Welcker,  Bunsen,  Pott,  and  others  ;  some 
he  has  successfully  supported  by  new  evidence,  others 
he  may  be  supposed  to  have  surrendered.  All  this 
could  not  be  otherwise  in  a  subject  so  new  and  neces- 
sarily so  full  of  guess-work  as  the  study  of  folk-lore, 


FOLK-LORE.  199 

and  it  detracts  in  no  way  from  the  value  of  the  excel- 
lent essays  in  which  Dr.  Kuhn  and  others  have  ana- 
lyzed various  myths  of  the  Aryan  nations.  All  we 
insist  on  is  this,  that  before  we  can  accept  any  conclu- 
sions as  to  the  Vedic  character  of  Greek  gods,  or  the 
deep  meaning  of  so  whimsical  a  custom  as  divination 
with  the  sieve  and  shears,  we  must  have  chapter  and 
verse  from  the  Veda,  and  well  authenticated  descrip- 
tions of  the  customs  referred  to.  People  do  not  object 
to  general  assertions  about  the  Bible,  or  Homer,  or 
Virgil,  or  Shakespeare,  because  here  they  can  judge 
for  themselves,  and  would  not  mind  the  trouble  of 
checking  statements  which  seem  at  all  startling.  But 
if  they  are  asked  to  believe  that  the  Veda  contains  the 
true  theogony  of  Greece,  that  Orpheus  is  "  Jftibhu," 
or  the  wind,  that  the  Charites  are  the  Vedic  "  Hari- 
tas,"  or  horses,  the  Erinnys  "  Sarawyu,"  or  the  light- 
ning, they  will  naturally  insist  on  evidence  such  as 
should  enable  them  to  judge  for  themselves,  before 
assenting  to  even  the  most  plausible  theories.  What 
authority  is  there  for  saying  (p.  14)  that,  — 

"  The  Sanskrit  tongue  in  which  the  Vedas  are 
written,  is  the  sacred  language  of  India,  that  is  to 
say,  the  oldest  language,  the  one  which  was  spoken, 
as  the  Hindus  believe,  by  the  gods  themselves,  when 
gods  and  men  were  in  frequent  fellowship  with  each 
other,  from  the  time  when  Yama  descended  from 
heaven  to  become  the  first  of  mortals." 

The  Hindus,  as  far  as  we  know,  never  say  that  the 
gods  spoke  Vedic  as  opposed  to  ordinary  Sanskrit ; 
they  never  held  that  during  the  Vedic  period  the  gods 
lived  in  more  frequent  fellowship  with  men ;  they 
never  speak  of  Yama  as  descending  from  heaven  to 


200  FOLK-LORE. 

become  the  first  of  mortals.  These  are  three  mistakes, 
or  at  least  three  entirely  un-Indian  ideas,  in  one  sen- 
tence. Again,  when  we  are  told  (p.  19)  that,  "  in  the 
Vedas,  Yama  is  the  first  lightning-born  mortal,"  we 
imagine  that  this  is  a  simple  statement  from  the  Veda, 

£3 

whereas  it  is  a  merely  hypothetical  and,  we  believe, 
erroneous  view  of  the  nature  of  Yama,  drawn  from 
the  interpretation  of  the  names  of  some  Vedic  deities. 
If  given  as  a  guess,  with  all  its  pros  and  cons,  it  would 
be  valuable  ;  if  given,  as  here,  as  a  simple  fact,  it  ia 
utterly  deceptive. 

In  page  18  we  are  told  :  — 

"  On  the  whole,  it  is  manifest  that  all  these  divine 
tribes,  Maruts,  Jftbhus,  Bhrigus,  and  Angiras,  are 
beings  identical  in  nature,  distinguished  from  each 
other  only  by  their  elemental  functions,  and  not  essen- 
tially different  from  the  Pitris  or  fathers.  The  latter 
are  simply  the  souls  of  the  pious  dead." 

Now  these  are  strong  and  startling  assertions,  but 
again  given  dogmatically,  and  without  any  proof.  The 
Pitris  are,  no  doubt,  the  fathers,  and  they  might  be 
called  the  souls  of  the  pious  dead ;  but,  if  so,  they 
have  no  elementary  origin,  like  the  gods  of  the  storms, 
the  days,  and  the  seasons ;  nor  can  they  have  any 
elementary  functions.  To  say  that  the  Pitris  or  Manes 
shone  as  stars  to  mortal  eyes  (p.  20)  is  another  asser- 
tion that  requires  considerable  limitation,  and  is  apt  to 
convey  as  false  an  idea  of  the  primitive  faith  of  the 
Vedic  Rishis,  as  when  (p.  21)  we  read  that  the 
"  Apas "  (waters)  are  cloud-maidens,  brides  of  the 
gods,  or  navigators  of  the  celestial  sea  ("  navyaA  "), 
and  that  the  "Apsaras"  are  damsels  destined  to  de- 
light the  souls  of  heroes  —  the  houris,  in  fact,  of  the 


FOLK-LORE.  201 

Vedic  paradise.  The  germs  of  some  of  these  ideas 
may,  perhaps,  be  discovered  in  the  hymns  of  the  Veda, 
but  to  speak  thus  broadly  of  a  Vedic  paradise,  of 
houris,  and  cloud-maidens,  is  to  convey,  as  far  as  we 
can  judge  from  texts  and  translations  hitherto  pub- 
lished, an  utterly  false  idea  of  the  simple  religion  of 
the  Vedic  poets. 

One  other  instance  must  suffice.  At  the  end  of  the 
sixth  chapter,  in  order  to  explain  why  a  healing  virtue 
is  ascribed  in  German  folk-lore  to  the  mistletoe  and 
the  ash,  Mr.  Kelly  makes  the  following  statement : 
"  This  healing  virtue,  which  the  mistletoe  shares  with 
the  ash,  is  a  long-descended  tradition,  for  the  KushfAa, 
the  embodiment  of  the  Soma,  a  healing  plant  of  the 
highest  renown  among  the  Southern  Aryans,  was  one 
that  grew  beneath  the  heavenly  Asvattha."  We  tried 
in  vain  to  understand  the  exact  power  of  the  for  in 
this  sentence.  Great  stress  is  laid  in  Northern  My- 
thology on  the  fact  that  the  mistletoe  grows  upon  a 
tree,  and  does  not,  like  all  other  plants,  spring  from  the 
earth.  But  the  KushlAa  is  never  said  to  grow  upon 
the  heavenly  Asvattha,  which  Mr.  Kelly  translates  by 
religious  fig,  but  beneath  it.  In  fact,  it  is  the  Asvat- 
tha, or  Pippal,  which,  if  found  growing  on  another 
tree,  the  /Sami  (Acacia  sumo),  is  considered  by  the 
Brahmans  as  peculiarly  fitted  for  sacrificial  purposes. 
The  for,  therefore,  must  refer  to  something  else  as 
forming  the  tertium  comparationis  between  the  mistle- 
toe and  the  Kush^Aa.  Is  it  their  healing  power? 
Hardly  ;  for,  in  the  case  of  the  mistletoe,  the  healing 
power  is  a  popular  superstition ;  in  the  case  of  the 
Kushf/ia,  the  Oostus  speciosus,  it  is,  we  believe,  a  me- 
di"jnal  fact.  We  suppose,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Kelly 


202  FOLK-LORE. 

perceived  the  similarity  between  the  German  and  the 
Indian  plants  to  consist  in  this,  that  the  Kush^Aa  was 
really  an  embodiment  of  Soma,  for  in  another  passage 
he  says :  — 

"Besides  the  earthly  Soma,  the  Hindus  recognize 
a  heavenly  Soma  or  Amrita  (ambrosia),  that  drops 
from  the  imperishable  Asvattha  or  Peepul  (Ficus 
religiosa),  out  of  which  the  immortals  shaped  the 
heaven  and  the  earth.  Beneath  this  mighty  tree, 
which  spreads  its  branches  over  the  third  heaven, 
dwell  Yama  and  the  Pitris,  and  quaff  the  drink  of 
immortality  with  the  gods.  At  its  foot  grow  plants  of 
all  healing  virtue,  incorporations  of  the  Soma." 

Mr.  Kelly  then  proceeds  to  remark  that  "the  paral- 
lelism between  the  Indian  and  the  Iranian  world-tree 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  ash  Yggdrasil  on  the  other, 
is  very  striking."  We  shall  pass  by  the  Iranian  world- 
tree,  the  fact  being  that  the  Zend-Avesta  does  not 
recognize  one,  but  always  speaks  of  two  trees.1  But 
fixing  our  attention  on  Mr.  Kelly's  comparison  of  what 
he  calls  the  Indian  world-tree  and  the  ash  Yggdrasil, 
the  case  would  stand  thus :  The  Hindus  believe  in  the 
existence  of  a  Pippal-tree  (Ficus  religiosa)  that  drops 
Soma  (Asclepias  acida),  at  the  foot  of  which  grows 
the  Kush^Aa  (Costus  speciosus),  a  medicinal  plant,  the 
incorporation  of  the  Soma  dropping  from  the  Pippal. 
As  there  is  a  similarity  between  the  ash  Yggdrasil  and 
the  Pippal,  both  representing  originally,  as  is  main- 
tained, the  clouds  of  heaven,  therefore  a  healing  virtue 
was  ascribed  to  the  ash  and  the  mistletoe  by  the 
Aryans  that  came  to  settle  in  Europe.  We  will  not 
deny  that  if  the  facts,  as  here  stated,  were  quite  cor- 

1  See  vol.  i.  p.  154. 


FOLK-LORE.  208 

rect,  some  similarity  of  conception  might  bo  discovered 
in  the  German  Yggdrasil  and  the  Indian  Pippal.  But 
did  the  Brahmans  ever  believe  in  a  Pippal  dropping 
Soma,  and  in  that  Soma  becoming  embodied  in  a  Cos- 
tus?  Mr.  Kelly  here,  for  once,  gives  a  reference  to 
Rig-veda  II.  164,  which,  as  we  find  from  the  original 
work  of  Dr.  Kuhn,  is  intended  for  Rig-veda  II.  164, 
19—22.  In  that  hymn  the  word  KushZ/ta  never  occurs. 
A  tree  is  indeed  mentioned  there,  but  it  is  not  called 
Asvattha,  nor  is  it  said  to  drop  Soma,  nor  is  there  any 
allusion  to  the  fact  that  heaven  and  earth  were  made 
of  that  tree.  All  that  can  be  gathered  from  the  ex- 
tremely obscure  language  of  that  hymn  is  that  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  there  described  is  called  Pippala  ;  that 
birds  settle  on  it  eating  that  fruit ;  that  they  sing  praises 
in  honor  of  a  share  of  immortality,  and  that  these  birds 
are  called  eaters  of  sweet  things.  That  the  word  used 
for  "  immortality "  may  mean  Soma,  that  the  word 
meaning  "  sweet "  may  stand  for  the  same  beverage, 
is  perfectly  true  ;  but,  even  if  that  conjectural  render- 
ing should  be  adopted,  it  would  still  leave  the  general 
meaning  of  the  verses  far  too  obscure  to  justify  us  in 
making  them  the  basis  of  any  mythological  compari- 
sons. As  to  the  KushlAa  —  the  Costus  speciosus,  which 
is  said  to  be  called  in  the  Rig-veda  an  incorporation"  of 
Soma,  we  doubt  whether  such  a  word  ever  occurs  in 
the  Rig-veda.  It  is  mentioned  in  the  mystical  formulas 
of  the  Atharva-veda,  but  there  again  it  is  called,  in- 
deed, the  friend  of  Soma  (Ath.-veda,  V.  4,  7),  but  not 
its  embodiment ;  nor  is  there  any  statement  that  under 
the  Asvattha-tree  there  mentioned,  the  gods  drink 
Soma,  but  simply  that  Yama  drinks  there  with  the 
gods, 


204  FOLK-LORE. 

It  is  impossible  to  be  too  careful  in  these  matters, 
otherwise  everything  becomes  everything.  Although 
Mr.  Kelly  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  poets  of  the 
Veda  knew  a  tree  similar  to  the  tree  Yggdrasil,  —  a 
world-tree,  or  a  cloud-tree,  or  whatever  else  it  may  be 
called,  —  there  is  not  a  single  passage  that  has  been 
brought  forward  in  support  by  Mr.  Kelly  or  by  Dr. 
Kuhn  himself,  which  could  stand  a  more  severe  crit- 
icism. When  the  poets  exclaim,  "  What  wood,  what 
tree  was  it,  of  which  they  made  heaven  and  earth  ?  " 
—  this  means  no  more  in  the  ancient  language  of 
religious  poetry  than,  Out  of  what  material  were 
heaven  and  earth  formed?  As  to  the  tree  Ilpa  —  or 
more  correctly,  Ilya  —  nothing  is  known  of  it  beyond 
its  name  in  one  of  the  latest  works  of  Vedic  literature, 
the  Upanishads,  and  the  remarks  of  so  modern  a  com- 
mentator as  /Sankara.  There  is  no  proof  whatever  of 
anything  like  the  conception  of  the  Yggdrasil  having 
entered  the  thoughts  of  the  Vedic  poets  ;  and  to  as- 
cribe the  healing  virtue  of  ash  or  mistletoe  to  any  rem- 
iniscence of  a  plant,  Kush^a,  that  might  have  grown 
under  a  Vedic  fig-tree,  or  Soma-tree,  or  Yggdrasil,  is 
to  attempt  to  lay  hold  of  the  shadow  of  a  dream. 

There  is  but  one  way  in  which  a  comparative  study 
of  the  popular  traditions  of  the  Aryan  nations  can 
lead  to  any  satisfactory  result.  Let  each  tale  be 
traced  back  to  its  most  original  form,  let  that  form  be 
analyzed  and  interpreted  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
rules  of  comparative  philology,  and  after  the  kernel,  or 
the  simple  and  original  conception  of  the  myth,  has 
been  found,  let  us  see  how  the  same  conception  and 
the  same  myth  have  gradually  expanded  and  become 
diversified  under  the  bright  sky  of  India  and  in  the 


FOLK-LORE.  205 

forests  of  Germany.  Before  the  Northern  Yggdra- 
sil is  compared  to  a  supposed  Indian  world-tree  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  gain  a  clear  insight  into  the 
nature  of  the  myth  of  Yggdrasil.  That  myth  seems 
to  be  of  a  decidedly  cosmogonic  and  philosophical  char- 
acter. The  tree  seems  to  express  the  Universe.  It  is 
said  to  have  three  roots  :  one  in  Niflheim,  near  the 
well  called  "  Hvergehnir ;  "  a  second  in  Jotunheim, 
near  the  well  of  the  wise  Mimir  ;  and  a  third  in  heaven, 
near  the  well  of  Vurdh.  Its  branches  embrace  the 
whole  world.  In  heaven  the  gods  hold  their  meetings 
under  the  shadow  of  this  tree,  near  the  well  of  Vurdh. 
The  place  is  guarded  by  the  three  Nornas  (Vurdh, 
Verdhandi,  and  Skuld,  —  Past,  Present,  and  Future), 
who  water  the  roots  of  the  tree  with  the  water  of 
Vurdh.  In  the  crown  of  the  tree  sits  an  eagle,  and  in 
the  well  of  Hvergehnir  lies  the  serpent  Nidhoggr,  and 
gnaws  its  roots.  In  none  of  these  conceptions  are  there 
any  clear  traces  of  clouds  or  thunder-storms ;  but  if 
there  were,  this  would  be  the  very  reason  why  the 
Yggdrasil  could  not  be  compared  to  the  Indian  A«- 
vattha,  in  which  no  ingenuity  will  ever  discover  either 
a  bank  of  clouds  or  a  thunder-storm. 

Dt£embcr,  1863. 


XXil. 
ZULU  NURSERY  TALES.1 


WE  should  before  now  have  brought  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Callaway's  collection  of  the  Nursery  Tales,  Traditions, 
and  Histories  of  the  Zulus  to  the  notice  of  our  read- 
ers, if  we  had  not  been  waiting  for  a  new  instalment 
of  his  interesting  work.  Dr.  Callaway  calls  what  he 
has  published  the  first  part  of  the  first  volume,  and  as 
this  part  contained  only  about  three  or  four  sheets,  we 
looked  forward  to  a  speedy  continuation.  The  fact  is 
that  one  cannot  well  form  an  opinion  of  the  real  char- 
acter of  nursery  tales  and  popular  stories  without  see- 
ing a  good  many  of  them.  Each  story  by  itself  may 
seem  rather  meaningless  or  absurd,  but  if  certain  fea- 
tures occur  again  and  again,  they  become  important 
in  spite  of  their  childishness,  and  enable  us  to  discover 
some  method  in  their  absurdity.  If  we  knew  of  only 
three  or  four  of  the  stories  of  Jupiter  or  Herakles,  we 
should  hardly  give  much  thought  to  them ;  but  having 
before  us  the  immense  quantity  of  fables  about  Greek 
gods  and  goddesses,  heroes  and  heroines,  we  naturally 
look  upon  them,  with  all  their  strangeness  and  extrava- 
gance, as  a  problem  in  the  history  of  the  Greek  nation, 

1  IzinganeJcwane  nensumansumane  nezindaba  zabantu.  "  Nursery  Tales, 
Traditions,  and  Histories  of  the  Zulus."  By  the  Rev.  Henry  Callaway,  M. 
D.  Vol.  i.  parti.  Natal,  1866. 


ZULU  NUKSERY   TALES.  207 

and  we  try  to  discover  in  them  certain  characteristics 
which  throw  light  on  the  origin  of  these  abnormal 
creations  of  the  human  mind.  It  was  the  same  with 
the  German  nursery  tales.  Their  existence  in  every 
country  where  German  races  had  settled  was  perfectly 
well  known,  but  they  did  not  become  the  subject  of 
historical  and  psychological  inquiry  till  the  brothers 
Grimm  published  their  large  collection,  and  thus  en- 
abled scholars  to  generalize  on  these  popular  fictions. 
By  this  time  the  study  of  popular  tales  has  become  a 
recognized  branch  of  the  study  of  mankind.  It  is 
known  that  such  tales  are  not  the  invention  of  individ- 
ual writers,  but  that,  in  Germany  as  well  as  every- 
where else,  they  are  the  last  remnants  —  the  detritus, 
if  we  may  say  so  —  of  an  ancient  mythology  ;  that 
some  of  the  principal  heroes  bear  the  nicknames  of  old 
heathen  gods ;  and  that  in  spite  of  the  powerful  dilu- 
tion produced  by  the  admixture  of  Christian  ideas,  the 
old  leaven  of  heathendom  can  still  be  discovered  in 
many  of  the  stories  now  innocently  told  by  German 
nurses  of  saints,  apostles,  and  the  Virgin  Mary. 

From  this  point  of  view,  the  mere  fact  that  the 
Zulus  possess  nursery  tales  is  curious,  because  nursery 
tales,  at  least  such  as  treat  of  ghosts  and  fairies  and 
giants,  generally  point  back  to  a  distant  civilization,  01 
at  least  to  a  long-continued  national  growth.  Like 
the  anomalies  of  a  language,  they  show  by  their  very 
strangeness  that  time  enough  has  elapsed  for  the  con- 
solidation of  purely  traditional  formations,  and  that  a 
time  must  have  been  when  what  is  now  meaningless  or 
irregular  was  formed  with  a  purpose,  and  according  to 
rule.  But  before  it  is  possible  to  analyze  these  Zulu 
tales,  twc  things  are  necessary.  First,  we  must  have 


208  ZULU  NURSERY  TALES. 

a  much  larger  collection  of  them  than  we  now  possess ; 
and,  secondly,  more  collections  must  be  made  among 
tribes  of  the  same  large  race  to  which  the  Zulus  be- 
long. The  Zulus  are  a  Kafir  race,  and  recent  re- 
searches have  made  it  very  clear  that  the  Kafir  races 
occupy  the  whole  east  coast  of  Africa  from  the  South 
to  several  degrees  beyond  the  Equator.  They  mi- 
grated from  North  to  South,  and  in  the  South  they  are 
bounded  by  the  Hottentots,  who  belong  to  a  different 
race.  The  Hottentots,  too,  are  now  believed  to  have 
migrated  from  the  North  of  Africa,  and  their  lan- 
guage is  supposed  to  be  akin  to  the  dialects  spoken  in 
the  countries  south  of  Egypt.  If  the  ethnological  out- 
lines of  the  continent  of  Africa  are  once  firmly  estab- 
lished, the  study  of  the  sacred  and  profane  traditions 
of  the  several  African  tribes  will  acquire  a  new  inter- 
est ;  and  it  is  highly  creditable  to  Dr.  Callaway,  Dr. 
Bleek,  and  others,  to  have  made  a  beginning  in  a  field 
of  research  which  at  first  sight  is  not  very  attractive  or 
promising.  Many  people,  no  doubt,  will  treat  these 
stories  with  contempt,  and  will  declare  that  they  are 
not  worth  the  paper  on  which  they  are  printed.  The 
same  thing  was  said  of  Grimm's  "  Mahrchen ;  "  nay, 
it  was  said  by  Sir  William  Jones  of  the  Zend-Avesta, 
and,  by  less  distinguished  scholars,  of  the  Veda.  But 
fifty  years  hence  the  collection  of  these  stories  may  be- 
come as  valuable  as  the  few  remaining  bones  of  the 

O 

dodo.  Stories  become  extinct  like  dodos  and  meg- 
atheria,  and  they  die  out  so  rapidly  that  in  Germany, 
.for  instance,  it  would  be  impossible  at  present  to  dis- 
cover traces  of  many  of  the  stories  which  the  brothers 
Grimm  and  their  friends  caught  up  from  the  mouth  of 
an  old  granny  or  a  village  doctor  half  a  century  ago. 


ZULU  NURSERY   TALES.  209 

Nor  it  it  an  easy  matter  to  catch  popular  stories.  The 
people  who  know  them  are  willing  enough  to  tell  them 
to  their  children,  but  they  do  not  like  to  repeat  them  to 
grown  up  people,  least  of  all  to  strangers,  who  are  sup- 
posed to  laugh  at  them.  Thus  Dr.  Callaways  says :  — 

"  Like  most  other  people,  the  Zulus  have  their  nur- 
sery tales.  They  have  not  hitherto,  as  far  as  I  know, 
been  collected.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  their  exis- 
tence even  is  suspected  but  by  a  few,  for  the  women 
are  the  depositaries  of  these  tales  ;  and  it  is  not  common 
to  meet  with  a  man  who  is  well  acquainted  with  them, 
or  who  is  willing  to  speak  of  them  in  any  other  way 
than  as  something  which  he  has  some  dim  recollection 
of  having  heard  his  grandmother  relate.  It  has  been 
no  easy  matter  to  drag  out  the  following  tales  ;  and  it 
is  evident  that  many  of  them  are  but  fragments  of 
some  more  perfect  narration." 

Waiting,  then,  for  a  larger  instalment  of  Zulu 
stories  before  we  venture  to  pronounce  an  opinion  of 
their  value  for  ethnological  purposes,  we  proceed  to 
point  out  a  few  of  their  most  curious  features,  which 
may  serve  as  a  lesson  and  as  a  warning  to  the  student 
of  the  folk-lore  of  European  and  Indo-European  na- 
tions. If  we  admit  for  the  present,  in  the  absence  of 
any  evidence  to  the  contrary,  that  the  Zulus  were  free 
from  the  influence  of  German  missionaries  or  Dutch 
settlers  in  the  formation  of  their  popular  stories,  it  is 
certainly  surprising  to  see  so  many  points  of  similarity 
between  the  heroes  of  their  kraals  and  of  our  own 
nurseries.  The  introduction  of  animals,  speaking  and 
acting  the  parts  of  human  beings,  was  long  considered 
as  an  original  thought  of  the  Greek  and  the  Teutonic 
tribes.  We  now  find  exactly  the  same  kind  of  "  ani- 

v«v  n.  14 


210  ZULU  NURSERY  TALES. 

mal  fables  "  among  the  Zulus,  and  Dr.  Bleek  has  ac- 
tually discovered  among  the  Hottentots  traces  of  the 
stories  of  Renard  the  Fox.1  The  idea  that  among  ani- 
mals cunning  is  more  successful  than  brute  force, — 
an  idea  which  pervades  the  stories  of  "  Reinecke 
Fuchs,"  and  of  many  other  fables, —  predominates 
likewise  in  the  fables  of  the  Zulus.  In  the  Basuto 
legend  of  the  "  Little  Hare,"  the  hare  has  entered  into 
an  alliance  with  the  lion,  but,  having  been  ill-treated 
by  the  latter,  determines  to  be  avenged.  "  My  father," 
said  he  to  the  lion,  "  we  are  exposed  to  the  rain  and 
hail ;  let  us  build  a  hut."  The  lion,  too  lazy  to  work, 
left  it  to  the  hare  to  do,  and  "  the  wily  runner  "  took 
the  lion's  tail,  and  interwove  it  so  cleverly  into  the 
stakes  and  reeds  of  the  hut  that  it  remained  there  con- 
fined forever,  and  the  hare  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
his  rival  die  of  hunger  and  thirst.  The  trick  is  not 

~ 

quite  so  clever  as  that  of  Reinecke,  when  he  persuades 
the  bear  to  go  out  fishing  on  the  ice  ;  but  then  the 
hare  compasses  the  death  of  the  lion,  while  Reinecke 
by  his  stratagem  only  deprives  the  bear  of  his  orna- 
mental tail. 

As  in  the  German  tales  the  character  of  Renard  the 
Fox  is  repeated  in  a  humanized  shape  as  Till  Eulen- 
spiegel,  so  among  the  Zulus  one  of  the  most  favorite 
characters  is  the  young  rogue,  the  boy  UAlakanyana, 

l  Reynard  the  Foxin  South  Africa.  By  W.  H.  I.  Bleek.  London,  1864. 
"  "Whether  these  fables  are  indeed  the  real  offspring  of  the  desert,  and  can 
be  considered  as  truly  indigenous  native  literature,  or  whether  they  have 
been  either  purloined  from  the  superior  white  race  or  at  least  brought  into 
«xistence  by  the  stimulus  which  contact  with  the  latter  gave  to  the  native 
mind  (like  that  resulting  in  the  invention  of  the  Tshiroki  and  Vei  alpha- 
bets) may  be  matters  of  dispute  for  some  time  to  come,  and  it  may  require 
as  much  research  as  was  expended  upon  the  solving  of  the  riddle  >f  the 
originality  of  the  Ossianic  poems  "  vf  xiii ). 


ZULU   NURSERY   TALES.  211 

who  at  first  is  despised  and  laughed  at,  but  wh  >  al- 
ways succeeds  in  the  end  in  having  the  laugh  on  his 
side.  This  UAlakanyana  performs,  for  instance,  the 
same  trick  on  a  cannibal  by  which  the  hare  entrapped 
the  lion.  The  two  have  struck  up  a  friendship,  and 
are  going  to  thatch  their  house  befoie  they  sit  down  to 
devour  two  cows.  U/tlakanyana  is  bent  on  having  the 
fat  cow,  but  is  afraid  the  cannibal  will  assign  to  him 
the  lean  cow.  So  he  says  to  the  cannibal,  "  Let  the 
house  be  thatched  now ;  then  we  can  eat  our  meat. 
You  see  the  sky,  that  we  shall  get  wet."  The  canni- 
bal said,  "  You  are  right,  child  of  my  sister."  UAla- 
kanyana said,  "  Do  you  do  it  then  ;  I  will  go  inside 
and  push  the  thatching-needle  for  you."  The  canni- 
bal went  up.  His  hair  was  very,  very  long.  U/ilakan- 
yana  went  inside  and  pushed  the  needle  for  him. 
He  thatched  in  the  hair  of  the  cannibal,  tying  it  very 
tightly ;  he  knotted  it  into  the  thatch  constantly,  tak- 
ing it  by  separate  locks  and  fastening  it  firmly.  He 
saw  the  hair  was  fast  enough,  and  that  the  cannibal 
could  not  get  down.  When  he  was  outside,  U7ilakan- 
yana  went  to  the  fire,  where  the  udder  of  the  cow 
was  boiled.  He  took  it  out  and  filled  his  mouth.  The 
cannibal  said,  "What  are  you  about,  child  of  my  sis- 
ter ?  Let  us  just  finish  the  house  ;  afterwards  we  can 
do  that ;  we  can  do  it  together."  UAlakanyana  re- 
plied, "  Come  down,  then."  The  cannibal  assented. 
When  he  was  going  to  quit  the  house,  he  was  unable 
to  quit  it.  He  cried  out,  "  Child  of  my  sister,  how 
have  you  managed  your  thatching  ?  U/tlakanyana  said, 
"•  See  to  it  yourself.  I  have  thatched  well,  for  I  shall 
not  have  any  dispute.  Now  I  am  about  to  eat  in 
peace ;  I  no  longer  dispute  with  anybody,  for  I  am 


212  ZULU  NURSERY   TALES. 

alone  with  my  cow."  It  hailed  and  rained.  The 
cannibal  cried  on  the  top  of  the  house ;  he  was  struck 
with  the  hailstones,  and  died  there  on  the  house.  It 
cleared.  UAlakanyana  went  out,  and  said,  "  Uncle, 
just  come  down.  It  lias  become  clear.  It  no  longer 
rains,  and  there  is  no  longer  hail,  neither  is  there  anj 
more  lightning.  Why  are  you  silent  ?  "  So  UAlakan- 
yana eat  his  cow  alone,  and  then  went  his  way. 

Dr.  Callaway  compares  the  history  of  the  travels 
and  adventures  of  U7Jakanyana  to  those  of  Tom 
Thumb  and  Jack  the  Giant-killer,  and  it  is  curious, 
indeed,  to  observe  how  many  of  the  tricks  which  we 
admired  as  children  in  English  or  German  story-books 
are  here  repeated  with  but  trifling  modifications.  The 
feat  performed  by  U7ilakanyana  of  speaking  before  he 
was  born  exceeds  indeed  the  achievements  even  of  the 
most  precocious  of  German  imps,  and  can  only  be 
matched,  as  Dr.  Callaway  points  out,  by  St.  Benedict, 
who,  according  to  Mabillon,  sang  eucharistic  hymns  in 
the  same  state  in  which  UAlakanyana  was  clamoring 
for  meat.  But  the  stratagem  by  which  this  Zulu 
"  Boots,"  after  being  delivered  to  the  cannibal's  mother 
to  be  boiled,  manages  to  boil  the  old  woman  herself, 
can  easily  be  matched  by  Peggy  or  Grethel  who  bakes 
the  cannibal  witch  in  her  own  oven,  or  by  the  Shifty 
Highland  Lad,  or  by  Maol  a  Chliobain  who  puts  the 
giant's  mother  in  the  sack  in  which  she  had  been  sus- 
pended. UAlakanyana  had  been  caught  by  cannibals, 
and  was  to  be  boiled  by  their  mother ;  so,  while  the 
cannibals  are  away,  UAlakanyana  persuades  the  old 
mother  to  play  with  him  at  boiling  each  other.  The 
game  was  to  begin  with  him,  a  proposal  to  which  the 
old  dame  readily  assented.  But  he  took  care  to  pre- 


ZULU  NURSERY   TALES.  213 

v*jnt  the  water  from  boiling,  and  after  having  been  in 
the  pot  for  some  time,  he  insisted  on  the  old  mother 
fulfilling  her  part  of  the  bargain.  He  put  her  in,  and 
put  on  the  lid.  She  cried  out,  "  Take  me  out,  I  am 
scalded  to  death."  He  said,  "  No,  indeed,  you  are 
not.  If  you  were  scalded  to  death,  you  could  not  say 
so.''  So  she  was  boiled,  and  said  no  more. 

There  is  a  story  of  a  cook  which  we  remember 
reading  not  long  ago  in  a  collection  of  German  anec- 
dotes. His  master  gives  him  a  brace  of  partridges  to 
roast,  and  being  very  hungry,  the  cook  eats  one  of 
them.  When  his  master  returns,  lie  eats  one  par- 
tridge, and  then  asks  for  the  other.  "  But  this  Tras 
the  other,"  says  the  cook,  and  nothing  can  persuade 
him  that  it  wasn't.  The  same  witticism,  such  as  it  is, 
reappears  in  the  story  of  U/ilakanyana  teaching  the 
leopard  how  to  suckle  her  cubs.  The  leopard  wants 
to  have  both  her  cubs  together,  but  he  insists  that  only 
one  ought  to  be  suckled  at  a  time,  the  fact  being  that 
he  had  eaten  one  of  the  cubs.  He  then  gives  her  the 
one  that  is  still  alive,  and  after  it  has  been  suckled,  he 
gives  it  back  to  her  as  the  second  cub. 

Those  of  our  readers  who  still  recollect  the  fearful 
sensations  occasioned  by  the  "  Fee  fo  fum,  I  smell  the 
blood  of  an  Englishmun,"  will  meet  with  several 
equally  harrowing  situations  in  the  stories  of  the 
Zulus,  and  of  other  races,  too,  to  whom  the  eating  of 
an  Englishman  is  a  much  less  startling  event  than  it 
seemed  to  us.  Usikulmui,  a  young  Zulu  hero,  goes  to 
court  two  daughters  of  Uzembeni,  who  had  devoured 
all  the  men  of  the  country  in  which  she  lived.  The 
two  girls  dug  a  hole  in  the  house  to  conceal  their 
iweetheart,  but  towards  sunset  Uzernbeni,  the  mother, 


21-1  ZULU  NURSERY   TALES. 

returned.  She  had  a  large  toe ;  her  toe  came  first, 
she  came  after  it;  and  as  soon  as  she  came,  she 
laughed  and  rolled  herself  on  the  ground,  saying, 
"  Eh,  eh  !  in  my  house  here  to-day  there  is  a  deli- 
cious odor ;  my  children,  what  is  there  here  in  the 
house  ?"  The  girls  said,  "  Away !  Don't  bother  us  ; 
we  do  not  know  where  we  could  get  anything;  we 
will  not  get  up."  Thus  Usikulumi  escapes,  and  after 
many  more  adventures  and  fights  with  his  mother-in- 
law,  carries  off  her  two  girls. 

It  is  impossible  of  course  to  determine  the  age  of 
these  stories,  so  as  to  show  that  foreign  influences  are 
entirely  out  of  the  question.  Yet  nursery  tales  are 
generally  the  last  things  to  be  adopted  by  one  nation 
from  another,  and  even  in  the  few  stories  which  we 
possess  we  should  probably  have  been  able  to  discover 
more  palpable  traces  of  foreign  influences,  if  such 
influences  had  really  existed.  Nay,  there  is  one  fea- 
ture in  these  stories  which  to  a  certain  extent  attests 
their  antiquity.  Several  of  the  customs  to  which  they 
allude  are  no  longer  in  existence  among  the  Zulus. 
It  is  not,  for  instance,  any  longer  the  custom  among 
the  natives  of  South  Africa  to  bake  meat  by  means  of 
heated  stones,  the  recognized  mode  of  cookery  among 
the  Polynesians.  Yet  when  Usikulumi  orders  a  calf 
to  be  roasted,  he  calls  upon  the  boys  of  his  kraal  to 
collect  large  stones,  and  to  heat  them.  There  are 
several  other  peculiarities  which  the  Zulus  seem  to 
share  in  common  with  the  Polynesians.  The  avoiding 
of  certain  words  which  form  part  of  the  names  of 
deceased  kings  or  chieftains  is  a  distinguishing  feature 
of  the  Zulu  and  Polynesian  languages,  being  called 
Ukuhlonipa  in  the  one,  and  Tepi  in  the  other.  If  a 


ZULU  NURSERY   TALES.  215 

person  who  has  disappeared  for  some  time,  and  is  sup- 
posed to  be  dead,  returns  unexpectedly  to  his  people, 
it  is  the  custom  both  among  the  Zulus  and  Polynesians 
to  salute  him  first  by  making  a  funeral  lamentation. 
There  are  other  coincidences  in  the  stories  of  both 
races  which  make  it  more  than  probable  that  at  some 
distant  period  they  lived  either  together  or  in  close 
neighborhood  ;  and  if  we  find  that  some  of  the  cus- 
toms represented  as  actually  existing  in  the  Zulu 
stories,  have  long;  become  extinct  on  the  African  con- 

'  O 

tinent,  while  they  continue  to  be  observed  by  the 
Polynesian  islanders,  we  might  indeed  venture  to  con- 
clude, though  only  as  a  guess  at  truth,  that  the  origin 
of  the  Zulu  stones  must  be  referred  to  a  time  preced- 
ing the  complete  separation  of  these  two  races.  While 
some  customs  that  have  become  obsolete  at  present  are 
represented  as  still  in  force  among  the  Zulus  of  the 
nursery  tales,  as,  for  instance,  the  use  of  the  UAlakula 
or  wooden  weeding-stick  which  is  now  generally  re- 
placed by  an  iron  pick  ;  other  things,  such  as  the  use 
of  medicines,  so  much  talked  of  now  among  the  na- 
tives, and  which  they  imagine  can  produce  the  most 
marvelous  results,  are  never  alluded  to.  All  this 
would  be  so  much  primd  facie  evidence  of  the  gen- 
uineness and  antiquity  of  these  Zulu  tales,  and  would 
seem  to  exclude  the  idea  of  European  influences.  The 
only  allusion  to  foreigners  occurs  in  a  story  whet  ~  one 
of  the  heroes,  in  order  to  be  taken  for  a  stranger,  com- 
mits a  number  of  grammatical  blunders  by  leaving  out 
the  prefixes  that  form  so  essential  a  feature  in  all  Kafir 
dialects.  But  this  would  not  necessarily  point  to  Eu- 
ropeans, as  other  strangers  too,  such  as  Hottentots,  for 
instance,  would  naturally  neglect  these  grammatical 
niceties. 


216  ZULU  NURSERY  TALES. 

We  hope  that  Dr.  Callaway  will  soon  be  able  to 
continue  his  interesting  publication.  Apart  from  other 
points  of  interest,  his  book,  as  it  contains  the  Zulu 
text  and  an  English  translation  on  opposite  columns, 
will  be  of  great  use  to  the  student  of  that  language. 
The  system  of  writing  the  Zulu  words  with  Roman 
letters,  adopted  by  Dr.  Callaway,  seems  both  rational 
and  practical.  Like  many  others,  he  has  tried  Dr. 
Lepsius'  standard  alphabet,  and  found  it  wanting. 
"  The  practical  difficulties,"  he  writes,  "  in  the  way  of 
using  the  alphabet  of  Lepsius  are  insuperable,  even  if 
we  were  prepared  to  admit  the  soundness  of  all  the 
principles  on  which  it  is  founded." 

March,  1867. 


XXIII. 
POPULAR  TALES  FROM  THE  NORSE.1 


WE  had  thought  that  the  Popular  Tales,  the  "  Kin- 
der und  Hausinarchen  "  which  the  brothers  Grimm 
collected  from  the  mouths  of  old  women  in  the  spin- 
ning-rooms of  German  villages,  could  never  be 
matched.  But  here  we  have  a  collection  from  the 
Norse  as  like  those  German  tales  as  "  Dapplegrim  was 
to  Dapplegrim,"  "  there  wasn't  a  hair  on  one  which 
wasn't  on  the  other  as  well."  These  Scandinavian 
"  Folkeeventyr  "  were  collected  by  MM.  Asbjornsen 
and  Moe  during  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  they  have 
now  been  translated  into  English  by  Dr.  Dasent,  the 
translator  of  the  "  Icelandic  Edda,"  and  the  writer  of 
an  excellent  article  in  the  last  "  Oxford  Essays,"  "  On 
the  Norsemen  in  Iceland."  The  translation  shows  in 
every  line  that  it  has  been  a  work  of  love  and  unflag- 
ging enjoyment ;  and  we  doubt  not  that,  even  trans- 
planted on  a  foreign  soil,  these  fragrant  flowers  will 
strike  root  and  live,  and  be  the  delight  of  children  — 

7  o 

young  and  old  —  for  many  generations  to  come. 

Who  can  tell  what  gives  to  these  childish  stories 
their  irresistible  charm  ?  There  is  no  plot  in  them  to 

1  Popular  Tales  from  the  Nwse.  By  George  Webbe  Dasent,  D.  C.  L 
With  an  Introductory  Essay  on  the  Origin  and  Diffusion  of  Popular  Tales 
Edinburgh:  Edmonston  &  Douglas,  1859. 


218  POPULAR   TALES   FROM   THE  NORSE. 

excite  our  curiosity.  No  gorgeous  description  of  scen- 
ery, a  la  Kingsley,  dazzles  our  eyes ;  no  anatomy  of 
human  passion,  a  la  Thackeray,  rivets  our  attention. 
No,  it  is  all  about  kings  and  queens,  about  princes  and 
princesses,  about  starving  beggars  and  kind  fairies, 
about  doughty  boys  and  clumsy  trolls,  about  old  hags 
that  bawl  and  screech,  and  about  young  maidens  an 
white  as  snow  and  as  red  as  blood.  The  Devil,  too,  is 
a  very  important  personage  on  this  primitive  stage. 
The  tales  are  short  and  quaint,  full  of  downright  ab- 
surdities and  sorry  jokes.  We  know  from  the  begin- 
ning how  it  will  all  end.  Poor  Boots  will  marry  the 
Princess  and  get  half  the  kingdom.  The  stepmother 
will  be  torn  to  pieces,  and  Cinderella  will  be  a  great 
queen.  The  troll  will  burst  as  soon  as  the  sun  shines 
on  him ;  and  the  Devil  himself  will  be  squeezed  and 
cheated  till  he  is  glad  to  go  to  his  own  abode.  And 
yet  we  sit  and  read,  we  almost  cry,  and  we  certainly 
chuckle,  and  we  are  very  sorry  when  — 

"  Snip,  snap,  snout, 
This  tale's  told  out." 

There  is  witchery  in  these  simple  old  stories  yet! 
But  it  seems  useless  to  try  to  define  in  what  it  consists. 
We  sometimes  see  a  landscape  with  nothing  particular 
in  it.  There  is  only  a  river,  and  a  bridge,  and  a  red- 
brick house,  and  a  few  dark  trees,  and  yet  we  gaze  and 
gaze  till  our  eyes  grow  dim.  Why  we  are  charmed 
we  cannot  tell.  Perhaps  there  is  something  in  that 
simple  scenery  which  reminds  us  of  our  home,  or  of 
some  place  which  once  we  saw  in  a  happy  dream.  Or 
we  watch  the  gray  sky  and  the  heavy  clouds  on  a 
dreary  day.  There  is  nothing  in  that  picture  that 
would  strike  an  artist's  eye,  We  have  seen  it  all  hun- 


POPULAR   TALES   FKOM   THE   NORSE.  219 

dreds  of  times  before  ;  and  yet  we  gaze  and  gaze,  till 
the  clouds,  with  their  fantastic  outlines,  settle  round 
the  sun,  and  vanish  beyond  the  horizon.  They  were 
only  clouds  on  a  gray  afternoon,  and  yet  they  have  left 
a  shadow  on  our  mind  that  will  never  vanish.  Is  it 
the  same,  perhaps,  with  these  simple  stories  ?  Do  they 
remind  us  of  a  distant  home,  of  a  happy  childhood  ? 
Do  they  recall  fantastic  dreams,  long  vanished  from 
our  horizon,  hopes  that  have  set,  never  to  rise  again  ? 
Is  there  some  childhood  left  in  us,  that  is  called  out  by 
these  childish  tales  ?  If  there  is  —  and  there  is  with 
most  of  us  —  we  have  only  to  open  our  book,  and  we 
shall  fly  away  into  Dream-land,  like  "  the  lassie  who 
rode  on  the  north  wind's  back  to  the  castle  that  lies 
east  o'  the  sun  and  west  o'  the  moon."  Nor  is  it 
Dream-land  altogether.  There  is  a  kind  of  real  life  in 
these  tales  —  life,  such  as  a  child  believes  in  —  a  life, 
where  good  is  always  rewarded,  wrong  always  pun- 
ished ;  where  every  one,  not  excepting  the  Devil,  gets 
his  due  ;  where  all  is  possible  that  we  tnily  want,  and 
nothing  seems  so  wonderful  that  it  might  not  happen 
to-morrow.  We  may  smile  at  those  dreams  of  inex- 
haustible possibilities  ;  but,  in  one  sense,  that  child's 
world  is  a  real  world  too,  and  those  children's  stories 
are  not  mere  pantomimes.  What  can  be  truer  than 
Dr.  Dasent's  happy  description  of  the  character  of 
Boots,  as  it  runs  through  the  whole  cycle  of  these 
tales? 

"  There  he  sits  idle  whilst  all  work ;  there  he  lies 
with  that  deep  irony  of  conscious  power  which  knows 
its  time  must  one  day  come,  and  meantime  can  afford 
to  wait.  When  that  time  comes  he  girds  himself  to 
the  fcat,  amidst  the  scoffs  and  scorn  of  hh  flesh  and 


220  POPULAR  TALES   FROM   THE  NORSE. 

blood ;  but  even  then,  after  he  has  done  some  great 
deed,  he  conceals  it,  returns  to  his  ashes,  and  again  sits 
idly  by  the  kitchen  fire,  dirty,  lazy,  despised,  until  the 
time  for  final  recognition  comes  ;  and  then  his  dirt  and 
rags  fall  off —  he  stands  out  in  all  the  majesty  of  his 
royal  robes,  and  is  acknowledged  once  for  all  a  King." 

And  then  we  see,  — 

"  The  proud,  haughty  Princess,  subdued  and  tamed 
by  natural  affection  into  a  faithful,  loving  wife.  We 
begin  by  being  angry  at  her  pride  ;  we  are  glad  at  the 
retribution  which  overtakes  her,  but  we  are  gradually 
melted  at  her  sufferings  and  hardships  when  she  gives 
up  all  for  the  Beggar  and  follows  him  ;  we  feel  for  her 
when  she  exclaims,  k  O,  the  Beggar,  and  the  babe, 
and  the  cabin  !  '  and  we  rejoice  with  her  when  the 
Prince  says,  *  Here  is  the  Beggar,  and  there  is  the 
babe,  and  so  let  the  cabin  be  burnt  away.' ' 

There  is  genuine  fun  in  the  old  woman  who  does 
not  know  whether  she  is  herself.  She  has  been  dipped 
into  a  tar-barrel,  and  then  rolled  on  a  heap  of  feathers  ; 
and  when  she  sees  herself  feathered  all  over,  she 
wants  to  find  out  whether  it  is  her  or  not.  And  how 
well  she  reasons !  "Oil  know,"  she  says,  "  how 
I  shall  be  able  to  tell  whether  it  is  me  ;  if  the  calves 
come  and  lick  me,  and  our  dog  Tray  doesn't  baik  at 
me  when  I  get  home,  then  it  must  be  me,  and  no  onr 
else."  It  is,  however,  quite  superfluous  to  say  any- 
thing in  praise  of  these  tales.  They  will  make  their 
way  in  the  world  and  win  everybody's  heart,  as  sure 
as  Boots  made  the  Princess  say,  t;  That  is  a  story !  " 

But  we  have  not  done  with  Dr.  Dasent's  book  yet. 
There  is  one  part  of  it,  the  Introduction,  which  in 
reality  tells  the  most  wonderful  of  all  wonderful  sto- 


POPULAR   TALES  FROM   THE  NORSE.  221 

ries  —  the  migration  of  these  tales  from  Asia  to  the 
North  of  Europe.  It  might  seem  strange,  indeed, 
that  so  great  a  scholar  as  Grimm  should  have  spent  so 
much  of  his  preciors  time  in  collecting  his  "  Mahr- 
chen,"  if  these  "  Mahrchen  "  had  only  been  intended 
for  the  amusement  of  children.  When  we  see  a  Lyell 
or  Owen  pick  up  pretty  shells  and  stones,  we  may  be 
sure  that,  however  much  little  girls  may  admire  these 
pretty  tilings,  this  was  not  the  object  which  these  wise 
collectors  had  in  view.  Like  the  blue  and  green  and 
rosy  sands  which  children  play  with  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  these  tales  of  the  people,  which  Grimm  was 
the  first  to  discover  and  collect,  are  the  detritus  of 
many  an  ancient  stratum  of  thought  and  language, 
buried  deep  in  the  past.  They  have  a  scientific  in- 
terest. The  results  of  the  science  of  language  are  by 
this  time  known  to  every  educated  man,  and  boys 
learn  at  school  —  what  fifty  years  ago  would  have 
been  scouted  as  absurd — that  English,  together  with 
all  the  Teutonic  dialects  of  the  Continent,  belongs  to 
that  large  family  of  speech  which  comprises,  besides 
the  Teutonic,  Latin,  Greek,  Slavonic,  and  Celtic,  the 
oriental  languages  of  Persia  and  India.  Previously  to 
the  dispersion  of  these  languages,  there  was,  of  course, 
one  common  language,  spoken  by  the  common  ances- 
tors of  our  own  race,  and  of  the  Greeks,  the  Romans, 
the  Hindus,  and  Persians,  a  language  which  was 
neither  Greek,  nor  Latin,  nor  Persian,  nor  Sanskrit, 
but  stood  to  all  of  them  in  a  relation  similar  to  that  in 
which  Latin  stands  to  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish ; 
or  Sanskrit  to  Bengali,  Hindustani,  and  Marathi.  It 
has  also  been  proved  that  the  various  tribes  who 
ttarted  from  this  central  home  to  discover  Europe  in 


222  POPULAR   TALES  FROM   THE  NORSE. 

the  North  and  India  in  the  South  carried  away  with 
them,  not  only  a  common  language,  but  a  common 
faith  and  a  common  mythology,  These  are  facts 
which  may  be  ignored  but  cannot  be  disputed,  and  the 
two  sciences  of  Comparative  Grammar  and  Compara- 
tive Mythology,  though  but  of  recent  origin,  rest  on 
a  foundation  as  sound  and  safe  as  that  of  any  of  the 
inductive  sciences  :  — 

"The  affinity,"  says  Dr.  Dasent,  "which  exists  in 
a  mythological  and  philological  point  of  view  between 
the  Aryan  or  Indo-European  languages  is  now  the  first 
article  of  a  literary  creed ;  and  the  man  who  denies  it 
puts  himself  as  much  beyond  the  pale  of  argument  as 
he  who,  in  a  religious  discussion,  should  meet  a  grave 
divine  of  the  Church  of  England  with  the  strict  con- 
tradictory of  her  first  article,  and  loudly  declare  his 
conviction  that  there  was  no  God." 

And  again :  — 

"  We  all  came,  Greek,  Latin,  Celt,  Teuton,  Sla- 
vonian, from  the  East,  as  kith  and  kin,  leaving  kith 
and  kin  behind  us,  and  after  thousands  of  years,  the 
language  and  traditions  of  those  who  went  East  and 
those  who  went  West  bear  such  an  affinity  to  each 
other  as  to  have  established,  beyond  discussion  or  dis- 
pute, the  fact  of  their  descent  from  a  common  stock." 

But  now  we  go  beyond  this.  Not  only  do  we  find 
the  same  words  and  the  same  terminations  in  Sanskrit 
and  Gothic  ;  not  only  do  we  find  the  same  names  for 
Zeus  and  many  other  deities  in  Sanskrit,  Latin,  and 
German  ;  not  only  is  the  abstract  name  for  God  the 
same  in  India,  Greece,  and  Italy ;  but  these  very  sto- 
ries, these  "  Mahrchen,"  which  nurses  still  tell,  with 
almost  the  same  words,  in  the  Thuringian  forest  and 


POPULAR   TALES   FROM   THE  NORSE.  223 

in  the  Norwegian  villages,  and  to  which  crowds  of 
children  listen  under  the  Pippal-trees  of  India,  these 
stories,  too,  belonged  to  the  common  heir-loom  of  the 
Indo-European  race,  and  their  origin  carries  us  back 
to  the  same  distant  past,  when  no  Greek  had  set  foot 
in  Europe,  no  Hindu  had  bathed  in  the  sacred  waters 
of  the  Ganges.  No  doubt  this  sounds  strange,  and  it 
requires  a  certain  limitation.  We  do  not  mean  to  say 
that  the  old  nurse  who  rocked  on  her  mighty  knees 
the  two  ancestors  of  the  Indian  and  the  German  races, 
told  each  of  them  the  story  of  Snow-white  and  Rosy- 
red,  exactly  as  we  read  it  in  the  "  Tales  from  the 
Norse,"  and  that  these  told  it  to  their  children,  and 
thus  it  was  handed  down  to  our  own  times.  It  is  true 
indeed  —  and  a  comparison  of  our  "  Norwegian  Tales  " 
with  the  "  Mahrchen "  collected  by  the  Grimms  in 
Germany  shows  it  most  clearly  —  that  the  memory  of 
a  nation  clings  to  its  popular  stories  with  a  marvelous 
tenacity.  For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  Scan- 
dinavian inhabitants  of  Norway  have  been  separated 
in  language  from  their  Teutonic  brethren  on  the  Con- 
tinent, and  yet  both  have  not  only  preserved  the  same 
stock  of  popular  stories,  but  they  tell  them  in  several 
instances  in  almost  the  same  words.  It  is  a  much  more 
startling  supposition  —  or,  we  should  say,  a  much  more 
startling  fact  —  that  those  Aryan  boys,  the  ancestors 
of  the  Hindus,  Romans,  Greeks,  and  Germans,  should 
have  preserved  the  ancient  words  from  "  one "  to 
"  ten,"  and  that  these  dry  words  should  have  been 
handed  down  to  our  own  school-boy  days,  in  several 
instances,  without  the  change  of  a  single  letter.  Thus 
2  in  English  is  still  "  two,"  in  Hindustani  "  do,"  in 
Persian  "  du,"  in  French  "  deux ;  "  3  is  still  "  three  " 


224  POPULAR  TALES  FROM   THE  NORSE. 

in  English,  and  "  trys "  in  Lithuanian ;  0  is  still 
"  nine  "  in  English,  and  "  nuh  "  in  Persian.  Surely  it 
was  not  less  difficult  to  remember  these  and  thousands 
>f  other  words  than  to  remember  the  pretty  stories 
»f  Snow-white  and  Rosy-red.  For  the  present,  how- 
ever, all  we  want  to  prove  is  that  the  elements  of  the 
seeds  of  these  fairy  tales  belong  to  the  period  that 
preceded  the  dispersion  of  the  Aryan  race ;  that  the 
same  people  who,  in  their  migrations  to  the  North  and 
the  South  carried  along  with  them  the  names  of  the 
Sun  and  the  Dawn,  and  their  belief  in  the  bright  gods 
of  Heaven,  possessed  in  their  very  language,  in  their 
mythological  and  proverbial  phraseology,  the  more  or 
less  developed  germs  that  were  sure  to  grow  up  into 
the  same  or  very  similar  plants  on  every  soil  and  under 
every  sky. 

This  is  a  subject  which  requires  the  most  delicate 
handling,  and  the  most  careful  analysis.  Before  we 
attempt  to  compare  the  popular  stories,  as  they  are 
found  in  India  and  Europe  at  the  present  day,  and  to 
trace  them  to  a  common  source,  we  have  to  answer 
one  very  important  question,  —  Was  there  no  other 
channel  through  which  some  of  them  could  have  flowed 
from  India  to  Europe,  or  from  Europe  to  India,  at  a 
later  time  ?  We  have  to  take  the  same  precaution  in 
comparative  philology  with  regard  to  words.  Besides 
the  words  which  Greek  and  Latin  share  in  common 
because  they  are  both  derived  from  one  common, 
s'  urce,  there  is  a  class  of  words  which  Latin  took  over 
from  Greek  ready  made.  These  are  called  foreign 
words,  and  they  form  a  considerable  element,  particu- 
larly in  modern  languages.  The  question  is  whether 
the  same  does  not  apply  to  some  of  our  common  Indo- 


POPULAR  /ALES  FKOM  THE  NORSE.       225 

European  stories.     How  is  it  that  some  of  Latbntaine's 
fables  should  be  identically  the  same  as  those  which 
we  find  in   two  collections  of  fables  in   Sanskrit,  the 
"  Pan&atantra  "  and  the  "  Hitopadesa  ?  "     This  is  a 
question,  which,  many  years  ago,  has  been  most  fully 
treated  in  one  of  the  most  learned  and  most  brilliant 
essays  of  Sylvestre  de  Sacy.      He  there  proves  that, 
about  570  after  Christ,  a  Sanskrit  work  which  con- 
tained these  very  fables  was  brought  to  the  court  of 
the  Persian   king,  Khosru  Nushirvan,  and  translated 
into  ancient  Persian,  or  Pehlevi.     The  kings  of  Persia 
preserved  this  book  as  a  treasure  till  their  kingdom  was 
conquered  by  the  Arabs.     A  hundred  years  later,  the 
book   was  discovered  and   translated  into  Arabic  by 
Almokaffa,  about  770  after  Christ.      It  then  passed 
through  the  hands   of  several  Arabic  poets,  and  was 
afterwards  retranslated  into  Persian,  first  into  verse, 
by  Rudaki,  in  the  tenth  century,  then  into  prose,  by 
Nasrallah,  in  the  twelfth.     The  most  famous  version, 
however,  appeared  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteeth  cen- 
tury, under  the  name  of  "  Anvari  Suhaili,"  by  Husain 
Vaiz.     Now,  as  early  as  the  eleventh  century  the  Ar- 
abic work  of  Almokaffa,  called  "  Kalila  Dimna,"  was 
translated  into  Greek  by  Simeon.     The  Greek  text 
and  a  Latin  version  have   been  published,  under  the 
title   of  "Sapientia  Indorum  Veterum,"  by  Starkius, 
Berlin,  1697.     This  work  passed  into  Italian.     Again 
the  Arabic  text  was  translated  into  Hebrew  by  Rabbi 
Joel ;  and  this  Hebrew  translation  became  the  princi- 
pal source  of  the  European  books  of  fables.     Before' 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  John  of  Capua  ha<l 
published  his  famous  Latin  translation,  "  Directorium 
immanae  vita),  alias,  parabolas  antiquorum  sapientium." 

VOL.   II.  15 


226       POPULAR  TALES  FROM  THE  NORSE. 

In  his  preface,  he  states  that  this  book  was  called 
"  Belile  et  Dimne  ;  "  that  it  was  originally  in  the  lan- 
guage of  India,  then  translated  into  Persian,  after- 
wards into  Arabic,  then  into  Hebrew,  and  lastly  by 
himself  into  Latin.  This  work,  to  judge  from  the 
numerous  German,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  French  trans- 
lations, must  have  been  extremely  popular  all  over 
Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  the  seventeenth 
century  a  new  stream  of  oriental  fables  reached  the 
literary  world  of  Europe,  through  a  translation  of  the 
"Anvari  Suhaili "  (the  Persian  "  Kalila  Dimna") 
into  French,  by  David  Sahid  d' Ispahan.  This  work 
was  called  "  Le  Livre  des  Lumieres,  ou  la  conduite 
des  rois,  compost  par  le  sage  Bilpay,  Indien."  It  after- 
wards went  by  the  name  of  "  Les  Fables  de  Pilpay." 
This  was  the  book  from  which  Lafontaine  borrowed 
the  subjects  of  his  later  fables.  An  excellent  English 
translation,  we  may  here  state,  of  the  "  Anvari  Su- 
haili "  has  lately  been  published  by  Professor  East- 
wick. 

This  migration  of  fables  from  India  to  Europe  is  a 
matter  of  history,  and  has  to  be  taken  into  account, 
before  we  refer  the  coincidences  between  the  popu- 
lar stories  of  India  and  Norway  to  that  much  earlier 
intercourse  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Indo-European 
races  of  which  we  have  spoken  before.  Dr.  Dasent 
is  so  great  an  admirer  of  Grimm,  that  he  has  hardly 
done  justice  to  the  researches  of  Sylvestre  de  Sacy. 
He  says :  — 

"  That  all  the  thousand  shades  of  resemblance  and 
affinity  which  gleam  and  flicker  through  the  whole 
body  of  popular  tradition  in  the  Aryan  race,  as  the 
Aurora  plays  and  flashes  in  countless  rays  athwart  the 


POPULAR    TALES    FROM    THE   NORSE.  2^1 

Northern  heavens,  should  be  the  result  of  mere  ser- 
vile copying  of  one  tribe's  traditions  by  another,  is  a 
supposition  as  absurd  as  that  of  those  good  country- 
folk, who,  when  they  see  an  Aurora,  fancy  it  must  be 
a  great  fire,  the  work  of  some  incendiary,  and  send  off 
the  parish  engine  to  put  it  out.  No  !  when  we  find  in 
such  a  story  as  the  'Master  Thief  traits  which  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Sanskrit  '  Hitopadesa,'  and  which 
are  also  to  be  found  in  the  story  of  Rampsinitus  in 
Herodotos,  which  are  also  to  be  found  in  German,  Ital- 
ian, and  Flemish  popular  tales,  but  told  in  all  with 
such  variations  of  character  and  detail,  and  such  adap- 
tation to  time  and  place,  as  evidently  show  the  original 
working  of  the  national  consciousness  upon  a  stock  of 
tradition  common  to  all  the  race,  but  belonging  to  no 
tribe  of  that  race  in  particular,  and  when  we  find  this 
occurring  not  in  one  tale,  but  in  twenty,  we  are  forced 
to  abandon  the  theory  of  such  universal  copying,  for 
fear  lest  we  should  fall  into  a  greater  difficulty  than 
that  for  which  we  were  striving  to  account." 

The  instance  which  Dr.  Dasent  has  here  chosen  to 
illustrate  his  theory  does  seem  to  us  inconclusive.  The 
story  of  the  "  Master  Thief"  is  told  in  the  "  Hitopa- 
desa."  A  Brahman,  who  had  vowed  a  sacrifice,  went 
to  the  market  to  buy  a  goat.  Three  thieves  saw  him, 
and  wanted  to  get  hold  of  the  goat.  They  stationed 
themselves  at  intervals  on  the  high  road.  When  the 
Brahman,  who  carried  the  goat  on  his  back,  ap- 
proached the  first  thief,  the  thief  said,  "  Brahman,  why 
do  you  carry  a  dog  on  your  back  ?  "  The  Brahman 
replied  :  "  It  is  not  a  dog,  'it  is  a  goat."  A  little  while 
after,  he  was  accosted  by  the  second  thief,  who  said, 
"  Brahman,  why  do  you  cariy  a  dog  on  your  back  ?  " 


228  POPULAR  TALES   FKOM  THE   NORSE. 

The  Brahman  felt  perplexed,  put  the  goat  down,  ex- 
amined it,  and  walked  on.  Soon  after  he  was  stopped 
by  the  third  thief,  who  said,  "  Brahman,  why  do  you 
carry  a  dog  on  your  back?  "  Then  the  Brahman  was 
frightened,  threw  down  the  goat,  and  walked  home  to 
perform  his  ablutions  for  having  touched  an  unclean 
animal.  The  thieves  took  the  goat  and  ate  it.  The 
gist  of  the  story  is  that  a  man  will  believe  almost  any- 
thing if  he  is  told  the  same  by  three  different  people. 
The  Indian  story,  with  slight  variations,  is  told  in  the 
Arabic  translation,  the  "  Kalila  and  Dimna."  It  was 
known  through  the  Greek  translation  at  Constantino- 

O 

pie,  at  least  at  the  beginning  of  the  Crusades,  and  was 
spread  all  over  Europe,  in  the  Latin  of  the  "  Directo- 
rium  humanse  vitae."  The  Norwegian  story  of  the 
"  Master  Thief"  is  not  a  translation,  such  as  we  find  in 
the  "  Filosofia  morale,"  nor  an  adaptation,  such  as  a 
similar  story  in  the  "  Face*tieuses  Nuitsde  Straparole." 
But  the  key-note  of  the  story  is  nevertheless  the  same. 
That  key-note  might  have  been  caught  up  by  any 
Norman  sailor,  or  any  Northern  traveller  or  student, 
of  whom  there  were  many  in  the  Middle  Ages,  who 
visited  the  principal  seats  of  learning  in  Europe.  And, 
that  key-note  given,  nothing  was  easier  than  to  invent 
the  three  variations  which  we  find  in  the  Norse  "  Mas- 
ter Thief."  If  the  same  story,  as  Dr.  Dasent  says, 
occurred  in  Herodotos  the  case  would  be  different. 
At  thf1  time  of  Herodotos  the  translations  of  the 
"  Hitopadesa "  had  not  yet  reached  Europe,  and  we 
should  be  obliged  to  include  the  "  Master  Thief" 
within  the  most  primitive  stock  of  Aryan  lore.  But 
there  is  nothing  in  the  story  of  the  two  sons  of  the 
architect  who  robbed  the  treasury  of  Rampsinitua 


POPULAR   TALES   FROM  THE  NORSE.  229 

which  turns  on  the  trick  of  the  "  Master  Thief."  There 
were  thieves,  more  or  less  clever,  in  Egypt  as  well  as 
in  India,  and  some  of  their  stratagems  were  possibly 
the  same  at  all  times.  But  there  is  a  keen  and  well- 
defined  humor  in  the  story  of  the  Brahman  and  his 
deference  to  public  opinion.  Of  this  there  is  no  trace 
in  the  anecdote  told  by  Herodotos.  That  anecdote 
deals  with  mere  matters  of  fact,  whether  imaginary  or 
historical.  The  story  of  Rampsinitus  did  enter  into 
the  popular  literature  of  Europe,  but  through  a  differ- 
ent channel.  We  find  it  in  the  "  Gesta  Romanorum," 
where  Octavianus  has  taken  the  place  of  Rampsinitus, 
and  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  there  it  came  originally 
from  Herodotos.  There  are  other  stories  in  the 
"  Gesta  Romanorum "  which  are  borrowed  directly 
from  the  "  Hitopadesa  "  and  its  translations.  We 
need  only  mention  that  of  Prince  Llewellyn  and  his 
hound  Gellert,  wliich  Dr.  Dasent  would  likewise  refer 
to  the  period  previous  to  the  dispersion  of  the  Aryan 
race,  but  wliich,  as  can  be  proved,  reached  Europe  by 
a  much  shorter  route. 

But  if  in  these  special  instances  we  differ  from  Dr. 
Dasent,  we  fully  agree  with  him  in  the  main.  There 
are  stories,  common  to  the  different  branches  of  the 
Aryan  stock,  which  could  not  have  travelled  from  In- 
dia to  Europe  at  so  late  a  time  as  that  of  Nushirvan. 
They  are  ancient  Aryan  stories,  older  than  the  "  Pan- 
fcatantra,"  older  than  the  "  Odyssey,"  older  than  the 
dispersion  of  the  Aryan  race.  We  can  only  mention 
one  or  two  instances. 

In  the  "  Pafi&atantra,"  there  is  the  story  of  the 
King  who  asked  his  pet  monkey  to  watch  over  him 
whUe  he  was  asleep.  A  bee  settled  on  the  King's 


230       POPULAR  TALES  FROM  THE  NORSE. 

head,  the  monkey  could  not  drive  her  away,  so  he  tools 
his  sword,  killed  the  bee,  and  in  killing  her  killed  the 
King.  A  very  similar  parable  is  put  into  the  mouth 
by  Buddha.  A  bald  carpenter  was  attacked  by  a 
mosquito.  He  called  his  son  to  drive  it  away.  The 
son  took  the  axe,  aimed  a  blow  at  the  insect,  but  split 
his  father's  head  in  two,  and  killed  him.  This  fable 
reached  Lafontaine  through  the  "  Anvari  Suhaili,'' 

O  f 

and  appears  in  the  French  as  the  "  Bear  and  the  Gar- 
dener." But  the  same  fable  had  reached  Europe  at  a 
much  earlier  time,  and  though  the  moral  has  been  al- 
tered, it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  fable  in  Pha> 
dros  of  the  bald  man  who  in  trying  to  kill  a  gnat  gives 
himself  a  severe  blow  in  the  face,  came  originally 
from  the  East.  There  may  have  been  some  direct 
communication,  and  JEsop  of  old  may  have  done  very 
much  the  same  as  Khosru  Nushirvan  did  at  a  later 
time.  But  it  is  more  likely  that  there  was  some  old 
Aryan  proverb,  some  homely  saw,  such  as  "  Protect  us 
from  our  friends,"  or  "  Think  of  the  king  and  the 

'  ~ 

bee."  Such  a  saying  would  call  for  explanation,  and 
stories  would  readily  be  told  to  explain  it.  There  is  in 
our  Norwegian  Tales  a  passage  very  much  to  the  same 
effect :  — 

"  A  man  saw  a  goody  hard  at  work  banging  her 
husband  across  the  head  with  a  beetle,  and  over  his 
head  she  had  drawn  a  shirt  without  any  slit  for  the 
neck. 

"  '  Why,  Goody  ! '  he  asked,  *  will  you  beat  your 
husband  to  death  ?  ' 

"  '  No,"  she  said,  *  I  only  must  have  a  hole  in  this 
shirt  for  his  neck  to  come  throuo-h.'  " 

O 

The  story  of  the   Donkey  in  the  Lion's  skin  waa 


POPULAR   TALES   FROM   THE  NORSE.  23J 

known  as  a  proverb  to  Plato.  It  exists  as  a  fable  in 
the  "  Hitopadesa,"  "The  Donkey  in  the  Tiger's  skin."' 
Many  of  the  most  striking  traits  of  animal  life  which 
are  familiar  to  us  from  Phjedros,  are  used  for  similar 
purposes  in  the  "  Hitopadesa."  The  mouse  delivering 
her  friends  by  gnawing  the  net,  the  turtle  flying  and 
dying,  the  tiger  or  fox  as  pious  hermits,  the  serpent  as 
king,  or  friend  of  the  frogs,  all  these  are  elements  com- 
mon to  the  early  fabulists  of  Greece  and  India.  One 
of  the  earliest  Roman  apologues,  "  the  dispute  between 
the  belly  and  the  other  members  of  the  body,"  was 
told  in  India  long  before  it  was  told  by  Menenius 
Agrippa  at  Rome.  Several  collections  of  fables  have 
just  been  discovered  in  Chinese  by  M.  Stanislas 
Julien,  and  will  soon  be  published  in  a  French  trans- 
lation. 

With  regard  to  the  ancient  Aiyan  fables,  which  are 
common  to  all  the  members  of  the  Aryan  family,  it 
has  been  said  that  there  is  something  so  natural  in  most 
of  them,  that  they  might  well  have  been  invented  more 
than  once.  This  is  a  sneaking  argument,  but  never- 
theless it  has  a  certain  weight.  It  does  not  apply, 
however,  to  our  fairy  tales.  They  surely  cannot  be 
called  natural.  They  are  full  of  the  most  unnatural 
conceptions  —  of  monsters  such  as  no  human  eye  has 
ever  seen.  Of  many  of  them  we  know  for  certain 
that  they  were  not  invented  at  all,  but  that  they  are 
the  detritus  of  ancient  mythology,  half-forgotten,  mis- 
understood, and  reconstructed.  Dr.  Dasent  has  traced 
the  gradual  transition  of  myth  into  story  in  the  case 
of  the  Wild  Huntsman,  who  was  originally  the  Ger- 
man god  Odin.  He  might  have  traced  the  last  fibres 
of  "  Odin,  the  hunter,"  back  to  Indra,  the  god  of 


232  POPULAR   TALES  FROM   THE  NORSE. 

Storms,  in  the  Veda ;  and  lower  even  than  the 
"  Grand  Veneur  "  in  the  Forest  of  Fontainebleau,  he 
might  have  dodged  the  Hellequin  of  France  to  the 
very  Harlequin  of  our  Christmas  Pantomimes.  Wil- 
liam Tell,  the  good  archer,  whose  mythological  cha,rac- 
ter  Dr.  Dasent  has  established  beyond  contradiction,  is 
the  last  reflection  of  the  Sun-god,  whether  we  call  him 
Indra,  or  Apollo,  or  Ulysses.  Their  darts  are  uner- 
ring. They  hit  the  apple,  or  any  other  point ;  and 
they  destroy  their  enemies  with  the  same  bow  with 
which  they  have  hit  the  mark.  The  countless  stories 
of  all  the  princesses  and  snow-white  ladies  who  were 
kept  in  dark  prisons,  and  were  invariably  delivered  by 
a  young  bright  hero,  can  all  be  traced  back  to  mytho- 
logical traditions  about  the  Spring  being  released  from 
the  bonds  of  Winter,  the  Sun  being  rescued  from  the 
darkness  of  the  Night,  the  Dawn  being  brought  back 
from  the  far  West,  the  Waters  being  set  free  from  the 
prison  of  the  clouds.  In  the  songs  of  the  Veda,  where 
the  powers  of  nature  have  hardly  assumed  as  yet  their 
fixed  divine  personality,  we  read  over  and  over  again  of 
the  treasures  which  the  God  of  light  recovers  from  the 

O 

dark  clouds.  These  treasures  are  the  Waters  conquered 
after  a  fierce  thunder-storm.  Sometimes  these  Waters 
are  called  the  cows,  which  the  robbers  had  hidden  in 
caves  — sometimes,  the  wives  of  the  gods  (Devapatm), 
who  had  become  the  wives  of  the  fiend  (Dasapatni 
or  Deianeira="  d£sa-nari).  Their  imprisonment  is 
called  a  curse  ;  and  when  they  are  delivered  from  it, 
Indra  is  praised  for  having  destroyed  "  the  seven  cas- 
tles of  the  autumn."  In  the  Veda  the  thief  or  the 
fiend  is  called  the  serpent  with  seven  heads. 

Every  one  of  these  expressions  may  be  traced  in 


POPULAR  TALES  FROM  THE  NORSE.  233 

the  German  "  Mahrchen."  The  loves  and  feuds  of  the 
powers  of  nature,  after  they  had  been  told,  first  of  gods, 
then  of  heroes,  appear  in  the  tales  of  the  people  as  the 
flirting  and  teasing  of  fairies  and  imps.  Christianity 
had  destroyed  the  old  gods  of  the  Teutonic  tribes,  and 
supplied  new  heroes  in  the  saints  and  martyrs  of  the 
Church.  The  gods  were  dead,  and  the  heroes,  the 
sons  of  the  gods,  forgotten.  But  the  stones  told  of 
them  would  not  die,  and  in  spite  of  the  excommunica- 
tions of  the  priests  they  were  welcomed  wherever  they 
appeared  in  their  strange  disguises.  Kind-hearted 
grannies  would  tell  the  pretty  stories  of  old,  if  it  was 
only  to  keep  their  little  folk  quiet.  They  did  not  tell 
them  of  the  gods  ;  for  those  gods  were  dead,  or,  worse 
than  that,  had  been  changed  into  devils.  They  told 
them  of  nobody  ;  ay,  sometimes  they  would  tell  them 
of  the  very  saints  and  martyrs,  and  the  apostles  them- 
selves have  had  to  wear  some  of  the  old  rags  that  be- 
longed by  right  to  Odin  and  other  heathen  gods.  The 
oddest  figure  of  all  is  that  of  the  Devil  in  his  half- 
Christian  and  half-heathen  garb.  The  Aryan  nations 
had  no  Devil.  Pluto,  though  of  a  sombre  character, 
was  a  very  respectable  personage  ;  and  Loki,  though  a 
mischievous  person,  was  not  a  fiend.  The  German 
goddess,  Hell,  too  —  like  Proserpina  —  had  once  seen 
better  days.  Thus,  when  the  Germans  were  indoc- 
trinated with  the  idea  of  a  real  Devil,  the  Semitic 
Satan  or  Diabolus,  they  treated  him  in  the  most  good- 
humored  manner.  They  ascribed  to  him  all  the  mis- 
chievous tricks  of  their  most  mischievous  gods.  But 
while  the  old  Northern  story-tellers  delighted  in  the 
success  of  cunning,  the  new  generation  felt  in  duty 
bound  to  represent  the  Devil  in  the  end  as  always 


234       POPULAR  TALES  FROM  THE  NORSE. 

defeated.  He  was  outwitted  in  all  the  tricks  which 
had  formerly  proved  successful,  and  thus  quite  a  new 
character  was  produced — the  poor  or  stupid  Devil, 
who  appears  not  unfrequently  in  the  German  and  in 
Norwegian  tales. 

All  this  Dr.  Dasent  has  described  very  tersely  and 
graphically  in  his  Introduction,  and  we  recommend 
the  readers  of  his  tales  not  to  treat  that  Introduction 
as  most  introductions  are  treated.  We  should  particu- 
larly recommend  to  the  attention  of  those  who  have 
leisure  to  devote  to  such  subjects,  what  Dr.  Dasent 
says  at  the  close  of  his  Essay :  — 

"  Enough  has  been  said,  at  least,  to  prove  that  even 
nursery  tales  may  have  a  science  of  their  own,  and 
to  show  how  the  old  Nornir  and  divine  spinners  can 
revenge  themselves  if  their  old  wives'  tales  are  insulted 
and  attacked.  The  inquiry  itself  might  be  almost 
indefinitely  prolonged,  for  this  is  a  journey  where 
each  turn  of  the  road  brings  out  a  new  point  of  view, 
and  the  longer  we  linger  on  our  path  the  longer  we 
find  something  fresh  to  see.  Popular  mythology  is  a 
virgin  mine,  and  its  ore,  so  far  from  being  exhausted 
or  worked  out,  has  here,  in  England  at  least,  been 
scarcely  touched.  It  may,  indeed,  be  dreaded  lest  the 
time  for  collecting  such  English  traditions  is  not  past 
and  gone ;  whether  the  steam-engine  and  pnnting- 
press  have  not  played  their  great  part  of  enlightenment 
too  well ;  and  whether  the  popular  tales,  of  which, 
no  doubt,  the  land  was  once  full,  have  not  faded  away 
before  these  great  inventions,  as  the  race  of  giants 
waned  before  the  might  of  Odin  and  the  jEsir.  Still 
the  example  of  this  very  Norway,  which  at  one  time 
was  thought,  even  by  her  own  sons,  to  have  few  tales 


POPULAR  TALES   FROM   THE  NORSE.  235 

of  her  own,  and  now  has  been  found  to  have  them  so 
fresh  and  full,  may  serve  as  a  warning  not  to  abandon 
a  search,  which,  indeed,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have 
been  ever  begun  ;  and  to  suggest  a  doubt  whether  the 
ill  success  which  may  have  attended  this  or  tliat  par- 
ticular attempt,  may  not  have  been  from  the  fault 
rather  of  the  seekers  after  traditions,  than  from  the 
want  of  the  traditions  themselves.  In  point  of  fact,  it 
is  a  matter  of  the  utmost  difficulty  to  gather  such  tales 
in  any  country,  as  those  who  have  collected  them  most 
successfully  will  be  the  first  to  confess.  It  is  hard  to 
make  old  and  feeble  women,  who  generally  are  the  de- 
positaries of  these  national  treasures,  believe  that  the 
inquirer  can  have  any  real  interest  in  the  matter.  They 
fear  that  the  question  is  only  put  to  turn  them  into  rid- 
icule ;  for  the  popular  mind  is  a  sensitive  plant ;  it 
becomes  coy,  and  closes  its  leaves  at  the  first  rude 
touch  ;  and  when  once  shut,  it  is  hard  to  make  these 
aged  lips  reveal  the  secrets  of  the  memory.  There 
they  remain,  however,  forming  part  of  an  under-cur- 
rent of  tradition,  of  which  the  educated  classes,  through 
whose  minds  flows  the  bright  upper-current  of  faith, 
are  apt  to  forget  the  very  existence.  Things  out  of 
sight,  and  therefore  out  of  mind.  Now  and  then  a 
wave  of  chance  tosses  them  to  the  surface  from  those 
hidden  depths,  and  all  her  Majesty's  inspectors  of 
schools  are  shocked  at  the  wild  shapes  which  still  haunt 
the  minds  of  the  great  mass  of  the  community.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  the  English  are  not  a  superstitious 
people.  Here  we  have  gone  on  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  proclaiming  our  opinion  that  the  belief  in 
witches,  and  wizards,  and  ghosts,  and  fetches  was  ex- 
tinct throughout  the  land.  Ministers  of  all  denomina- 


236       POPULAR  TALES  FROM  THE  NORSE. 

tions  have  preached  them  down,  and  philosophers  con- 
vinced all  the  world  of  the  absurdity  of  such  vain 
superstitions  ;  and  yet  it  has  been  reserved  for  another 
learned  profession,  the  Law,  to  produce  in  one  trial  at 
the  Staffordshire  Assizes,  a  year  or  two  ago,  such  a 
host  of  witnesses  who  firmly  believed  in  witchcraft,  and 
swore  to  their  belief  in  spectre  dogs  and  wizards,  as  to 
show  that,  in  the  Midland  Counties  at  least,  such  tradi- 
tions are  anything  but  extinct.  If  so  much  of  the  bad 
has  been  spared  by  steam,  by  natural  philosophy,  and 
by  the  Church,  let  us  hope  that  some  of  the  good  may 
still  linger  along  with  it,  and  that  an  English  Grimm 
may  yet  arise  who  may  carry  out  what  Mr.  Chambers 
has  so  well  begun  in  Scotland,  and  discover  in  the 
mouth  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  Gammer  Grethel  some,  at 
least,  of  those  popular  tales  which  England  once  had 
in  common  with  all  the  Aryan  race." 

January,  1859. 


XXIV. 
TALES  OF  THE  WEST  HIGHLANDS.1 


WHEN  reviewing,  some  time  ago,  Dr.  Dasent's 
"Popular  Tales  from  the  Norse,"  we  expressed  a 
hope  that  something  might  still  be  done  for  recovering 
at  least  a  few  fragments  here  and  there  of  similar  tales 
once  current  in  England.  Ever  since  the  brothers 
Grimm  surprised  the  world  by  their  "  Kinder  und 
Hausmarchen,"  which  they  had  picked  up  in  various 
parts  of  Germany  —  in  beer-houses,  in  spinning-rooms, 
or  in  the  warm  kitchen  of  an  old  goody  —  an  active 
search  has  been  set  on  foot  in  eveiy  comer  of  Ger- 
many, in  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  nay,  even  in 
Finland  and  Lapland,  for  everything  in  the  shape  of 
popular  sayings,  proverbs,  riddles,  or  tales.  The  re- 
sult has  been  more  than  could  have  been  expected. 
A  considerable  literature  has  been  brought  together, 
and  we  have  gained  an  insight  into  the  natural  growth 
of  popular  lore,  more  instructive  than  anything  that 
could  be  gathered  from  chronicles  or  historians.  Our 
hope  that  Dr.  Dasent's  work  would  give  a  powerful 
impulse  to  similar  researches  in  this  country  has  not 
been  disappointed.  Good  books  seem  to  beget  good 

l  Popular  Tales  of  the  West  Highlands.     Orally  collected,  with  a  trans* 
lation  by  J.  F.  Campbell.    Edinburgh:  Edtnonston  &  Douglas,  1860. 


238  TALES   OF   THE  WEST   HIGHLANDS. 

books,  and  in  Mr.  Campbell's  "  Popular  Tales  of  the 
West  Highlands,"  orally  collected,  with  a  translation, 
we  are  glad  to  welcome  the  first  response  to  the  ap- 
peal made  by  the  translator  of  the  Norse  Tales.  It 
might  be  feared,  indeed,  as  Dr.  Dasent  said  in.  his 
learned  and  eloquent  Introduction,  whether  the  time 
for  collecting  such  English  traditions  was  not  past  and 
gone ;  whether  the  steam-engine  and  printing-press  had 
not  played  their  great  work  of  enlightenment  too  well ; 
and  whether  the  popular  tales,  of  which,  no  doubt,  the 
land  was  once  full,  had  not  faded  away  before  these 
great  inventions,  as  the  race  of  giants  waned  before 
the  might  of  Odin  and  the  JEsir.  But  not  so.  Of 
course  such  stories  were  not  to  be  found  in  London  or 
its  immediate  neighborhood.  People  who  went  out 
story-fishing  to  Richmond  or  Gravesend  would  find 
but  poor  sport  among  white-tied  waiters  or  barmaids 
in  silk.  However,  even  in  St.  James'  Street,  a  prac- 
ticed hand  may  get  a  rise,  as  witness  the  following 
passage  from  Mr.  Campbell's  preface  :  — 

"  I  met  two  tinkers  in  St.  James'  Street,  in  Febru- 
ary, with  black  faces  and  a  pan  of  burning  coals  each. 
They  were  followed  by  a  wife,  and  preceded  by  a 
mangy  terrier  with  a  stiff  tail.  I  joined  the  party,  and 
one  told  me  a  version  of  '  the  man  who  travelled  to 
learn  what  shivering  meant,'  while  we  walked  to- 
gether through  the  Park  to  Westminster." 

But  though  a  stray  story  may  thus  be  bagged  in  the 
West-end  of  London,  Mr.  Campbell  knew  full  well 
that  his  best  chance  would  lie  as  far  away  from  the 
centre  of  civilization  as  railways  could  carry  him,  and 
as  far  away  from  railways  as  his  legs  could  take  him. 
So  he  went  to  his  own  native  country,  the  Western 


TALES   OF  THE    WEST    HIGHLANDS.  239 

Islands  and  Highlands  of  Scotland.  There  he  knew 
he  would  meet  with  people  who  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  who  hardly  knew  a  word  of  English,  and  from 
whom  he  remembered  as  a  child  to  have  heard  stories 
exactly  like  those  which  Dr.  Dasent  had  lately  im- 
ported from  Norway.  We  must  copy  at  least  one 
description  of  the  haunts  explored  by  Mr.  Campbell :  — 

"  Let  me  describe  one  of  these  old  story-men  as  a 
type  of  his  kind.  I  trust  he  will  not  be  offended,  for 
he  was  very  polite  to  me.  His  name  is  MacPhie  ;  he 
lives  at  the  north  end  of  South  Uist,  where  the  road 
ends  at  a  sound,  which  has  to  be  forded  at  the  ebb  to 
go  to  Benbecula.  The  house  is  built  of  a  double  wall 
of  loose  boulders,  with  a  layer  of  peat  three  feet  thick 
between  the  walls.  The  ends  are  round,  and  the  roof 
rests  on  the  inner  wall,  leaving  room  for  a  crop  of 
yellow  gowans.  A  man  might  walk  round  the  roof 
on  the  top  of  the  wall.  There  is  but  one  room,  with 
two  low  doors,  one  on  each  side  of  the  house.  The 
fire  is  on  the  floor ;  the  chimney  is  a  hole  above  it ; 
and  the  rafters  are  hung  with  pendants  and  festoons 
of  shining  black  peat  reek.  They  are  of  birch  of  the 
main-land,  American  drift-wood,  or  broken  wreck. 
They  support  a  covering  of  turf  and  straw,  and  stones 
and  heather  ropes,  which  keep  out  the  rain  well 
enough. 

"The  house  stands  on  a  green  bank,  with  gray 
rocks  protruding  through  the  turf;  and  the  whole 
neighborhood  is  pervaded  by  cockle  shells,  which  indi- 
cate the  food  of  the  people  and  their  fishing  pursuits. 
In  a  neighboring  kiln  there  were  many  cart-loads 
about  to  be  burned,  to  make  that  lime  which  is  so 
durable  in  the  old  castles.  The  owner  of  the  house, 


240  TALES    OF   THE   WEST    HIGHLANDS. 

whom  I  visited  twice,  is  seventy-nine.  He  told  me 
nine  stories,  and,  like  all  the  others,  declared  that 
there  was  no  man  in  the  island  who  knew  them  so 
well.  '  He  could  not  say  how  many  he  knew ; '  he 
seemed  to  know  versions  of  nearly  everything  I  had 
got ;  and  he  told  me  plainly  that  my  versions  were 
good  for  nothing.  '  Huch  !  thou  hast  not  got  them 
right  at  all.'  '  They  came  into  his  mind,'  he  said, 
4  sometimes  at  night  when  he  could  not  sleep  —  old 
tales  that  he  had  not  heard  for  threescore  years.' 

"  He  had  the  manner  of  a  practiced  narrator,  and  it 
is  quite  evident  that  he  is  one ;  he  chuckled  at  the  in- 
teresting parts,  and  laid  his  withered  finger  on  my 
knee  as  he  gave  out  the  terrible  bits  with  due  solem- 
nity. A  small  boy  in  a  kilt,  with  large,  round,  glitter- 
ing eyes,  was  standing  mute  at  his  knee,  gazing  at 
his  wrinkled  face,  and  devouring  every  word.  The 
boy's  mother  first  boiled  and  then  mashed  potatoes ; 
and  his  father,  a  well  grown  man  in  tartan  breeks,  ate 
them.  Ducks  and  ducklings,  a  cat  and  a  kitten,  some 
hens,  and  a  baby,  all  tumbled  about  on  the  clay  floor 
together,  and  expressed  their  delight  at  the  savory 
prospect,  each  in  his  own  fashion  ;  and  then  wayfarers 
dropped  in  and  listened  for  a  spell,  and  passed  their 
remarks,  till  the  ford  was  shallow.  The  light  came 
streaming  down  the  chimney,  and  through  a  single  pane 
of  glass,  lighting  up  a  track  in  the  blue  mist  of  the  peat 
smoke  ;  and  fell  on  the  white  hair  and  brown,  withered 
foce  of  the  old  man,  as  he  sat  on  a  low  stool,  with  his 
feet  to  the  fire  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  dwelling,  with  all 
its  plenishing  of  boxes  and  box-beds,  dishes  and  dresser, 
and  gear  of  all  sorts,  faded  away,  through  shades  of 
deepening  brown,  to  the  black  darkness  of  the  smoked 


TALES   OF  THE  WEST   HIGHLANDS.  241 

roof  and  the  '  peat  corner.'  There  we  sat,  and  smoked 
And  talked  for  hours  till  the  tide  ebbed;  and  then  I 
crossed  the  ford  by  wading  up  to  the  waist,  and  dried 
my  clothes  in  the  wind  in  Benbecula." 

Mr.  Campbell,  we  see,  can  describe  well,  and  the 
small  sketches  which  he  inserts  in  his  preface  —  bits 
of  scenery  from  Scotland  or  Lapland,  from  Spain  or 
Algiers  —  are  evidently  the  work  of  a  man  who  can 
handle  brush  and  pen  with  equal  skill.  If  he  had 
simply  given  a  description  of  his  travels  in  the  West- 
ern Highlands,  interspersed  with  some  stories  gathered 
from  the  mouths  of  the  people,  he  would  have  given 
us  a  most  charming  Christmas-book.  But  Mr.  Camp- 
bell had  a  higher  aim.  He  had  learned  from  Dr. 
Dasent's  preface,  that  popular  stories  may  be  made  to 
tell  a  story  of  their  own,  and  that  they  may  yield  most 
valuable  materials  for  the  paleontology  of  the  human 
race.  The  nations  who  are  comprehended  under  the 
common  appellation  of  Aryan  or  Indo-European  —  the 
Hindus,  the  Persians,  the  Celts,  Germans,  Romans, 
Greeks,  and  Slaves  —  do  not  only  share  the  same  words 
and  the  same  grammar  slightly  modified  in  each  coun- 
try, but  they  seem  to  have  likewise  preserved  a  mass 
of  popular  tradition  which  had  grown  up  before  they 
had  left  their  common  home.  That  this  is  true  with 
regard  to  mythological  traditions  has  been  fully  proved, 
and  comparative  mythology  has  by  this  time  taken  its 
place  as  a  recognized  science,  side  by  side  with  compar- 
ative philology.  But  it  is  equally  known  that  the  gods 
of  ancient  mythology  were  changed  into  the  demi-gods 
and  heroes  of  ancient  epic  poetry,  and  that  these  demi- 
gods again  became,  at  a  later  age,  the  principal  char- 
acters of  our  nursery  tales.  If,  therefore,  the  Saxons, 

VOL.    II.  16 


242  TALES   OF  THE  WEST   HIGHLANDS. 

Celts,  Romans,  Greeks,  Slaves,  Persians,  and  Hindus 
once  spoke  the  same  language,  if  they  worshipped  the 
same  gods  and  believed  in  the  same  myths  and  legends, 
we  need  not  be  surprised  that  even  at  the  present  day 
there  is  still  a  palpable  similarity  between  the  stories 
told  by  MacPhie  of  South  Uist  and  those  for  which  we 
are  indebted  to  the  old  grannies  in  every  village  of 
Germany  —  nay,  that  the  general  features  of  their 
tales  should  be  discovered  in  the  stories  of  Vishnu- 
*arman  and  Somadeva  in  India. 

The  discoveiy  of  such  similarities  is  no  doubt  highly 
interesting,  but  at  the  same  time  the  subject  requires 
the  most  delicate  handling.  Such  has  been  the  later 
literary  intercourse  between  the  nations  of  the  East 
and  the  West,  that  many  channels,  besides  that  of  the 
one  common  primitive  language,  were  open  for  the 
spreading  of  popular  stories.  The  researches  of  De 
Sacy  and  Benfey  have  laid  open  several  of  these  chan- 
nels through  which  stories,  ready  made,  were  carried 
through  successive  translations  from  India  to  Persia 
and  Greece  and  the  rest  of  Europe.  This  took  place 
during  the  Middle  Ages  ;  whereas  the  original  seeds  of 
Indo-European  legends  must  have  been  brought  to 
Europe  by  the  first  Aryans  who  settled  in  Greece, 
Italy,  Germany,  and  Gaul.  These  two  classes  of  le- 
gends must,  therefore,  be  carefully  kept  apart,  though 
their  separation  is  often  a  work  of  great  difficulty.  The 
first  class  of  legends  —  those  which  were  known  to  the 
primeval  Aryan  race,  before  it  broke  up  into  Hindus, 
Greeks,  Romans,  Germans,  and  Celts  —  may  be  called 
primitive,  or  organic.  The  second  —  those  which 
were  imported  in  later  times  from  one  literature  into 
another  —  may  be  called  secondary,  or  inorganic.  The 


TALES   OF   THE   WEST   HIGHLANDS.  243 

former  represent  one  common  ancient  stratum  of  lan- 
guage and  thought,  reaching  from  India  to  Europe  ; 
the  latter  consist  of  boulders  of  various  strata  carried 
along  by  natural  and  artificial  means  from  one  country 
to  another.  As  we  distinguish  in  each  Aryan  language 
between  common  and  foreign  words, —  the  former  con- 
stituting the  ancient  heir-loom  of  the  Aryan  race,  the 
latter  being  borrowed  by  Romans  from  Greeks,  by 
Germans  from  Romans,  by  Celts  from  Germans,  —  so 
we  ought  to  distinguish  between  common  aboriginal 
Aryan  legends  and  legends  borrowed  and  transplanted 
at  later  times.  The  rules  which  apply  to  the  treatment 
of  words  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  comparative 
analysis  of  legends.  If  we  find  words  in  Sanskrit  ex- 
actly the  same  as  in  Greek,  we  know  that  they  cannot 
be  the  same  words.  The  phonetic  system  of  Greek  is 
different  from  that  of  Sanskrit ;  and  words,  in  order  to 
prove  their  original  identity,  must  be  shown  to  have 
suffered  the  modifying  influences  of  the  phonetic  sys- 
tem peculiar  to  each  language.  "  Ekatara  "  in  San- 
skrit cannot  be  the  same  word  as  eKarrpos  in  Greek  ; 
"better"  in  English  cannot  be  the  same  as  "behter" 
in  Persian.  "  Ei "  in  German  cannot  be  the  same  as 
English  "  eye."  If  they  were  the  same  words,  they 
would  necessarily  have  diverged  more  widely  through 
the  same  influence  which  made  Greek  different  from 
Sanskrit,  Persian  different  from  English,  and  English 
different  from  German.  This  of  course  does  not  apply 
to  foreign  words.  When  the  Romans  adopted  the 
word  "  philosophos  "  from  Greek,  they  hardly  changed 
it  at  all ;  whereas  the  root  "  sap  "  had,  by  a  perfectly 
natural  process,  produced  sapiens  in  Latin,  and 
"  sophos  "  in  Greek. 


244  TALES   OF  THE  WEST   HIGHLANDS. 

Another  rule  of  the  science  of  language  which  ought 
to  be  carefully  observed  in  the  comparative  study  of 
legends  is  tins,  that  no  comparison  should  be  made  be- 
fore each  word  is  traced  back  to  its  most  primitive  form 
and  meaning.  We  cannot  compare  English  and  Hin- 
dustani, but  we  can  trace  an  English  word  back  to 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Gothic,  and  a  Hindustani  word  back 
to  Hindu  and  Sanskrit;  and  then  from  Gothic  and 
Sanskrit  we  can  measure  and  discover  the  central  point 
from  whence  the  original  Aryan  word  proceeded.  We 
thus  discover  not  only  its  original  form,  but  at  the 
same  time  its  etymological  meaning.  Applying  this 
rule  to  the  comparison  of  popular  tales,  we  maintain 
that  before  any  comparison  can  be  instituted  between 
nursery  tales  of  Germany,  England,  and  India,  each 
tale  must  be  traced  back  to  a  legend  or  myth  from 
whence  it  arose,  and  in  which  it  had  a  natural  mean- 
ing :  otherwise  we  cannot  hope  to  arrive  at  any  satis- 
factory results.  One  instance  must  suffice  to  illustrate 
the  application  of  these  rules.  In  Mr.  Campbell's 
West  Highland  Tales  we  meet  with  the  story  of  a  frog 
who  wishes  to  marry  the  daughter  of  a  queen,  and 
who,  when  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  queen  con- 
sents to  become  his  wife,  is  freed  from  a  spell  and 
changed  into  a  handsome  man.  This  story  can  be 
traced  back  to  the  year  1548.  In  Germany  it  is  well 
known  as  the  story  of  the  "  Froschkonig."  Mr.  Camp- 
bell thinks  it  is  of  Gaelic  origin,  because  the  speech  of 
the  frog  in  Gaelic  is  an  imitation  of  the  gurgling  and 
quacking  of  spring  frogs.  However,  the  first  question 
to  answer  is  this,  How  came  such  a  story  ever  to  be 
invented  ?  Human  beings,  we  may  hope,  were  at  all 
times  sufficiently  enlightened  to  know  that  a  marriage 


TALES   OF   THE   WEST   HIGHLANDS.  245 

between  a  frog  and  the  daughter  of  a  queen  was  ab- 
surd. No  poet  could  ever  have  sat  down  to  invent 
sheer  nonsense  like  this.  We  may  ascribe  to  our  an- 
cestors any  amount  of  childlike  simplicity,  but  we  must 
take  care  not  to  degrade  them  to  the  rank  of  mere 
idiots.  There  must  have  been  something  rational  in 
the  early  stories  and  myths ;  and  until  we  find  a  reason 
for  each,  we  must  just  leave  them  alone  as  we  leave  a 
curious  petrifaction  which  lias  not  yet  been  traced  back 
to  any  living  type.  Now,  in  our  case  it  can  be  shown 
that  frog  was  used  as  a  name  of  the  sun.  In  the  an- 
cient floating  speech  of  the  Aryan  family  the  sun  had 
hundreds  of  names.  Each  poet  thought  he  had  a 
right  to  call  the  sun  by  his  own  name ;  and  he  would 
even  call  it  by  a  different  name  at  sunrise  and  at  sun- 
set, in  spring  and  in  winter,  in  war  or  in  peace.  Their 
ancient  language  was  throughout  poetical  and  meta- 
phorical. The  sun  might  be  called  the  iiourisher,  the 
awakener,  the  giver  of  life,  the  messenger  of  death, 
the  brilliant  eye  of  heaven,  the  golden  swan,  the  dog, 
the  wolf,  the  lion.  Now  at  sunrise  and  sunset,  when 
the  sun  seemed  squatting  on  the  water,  it  was  called  the 
frog.  This  may  have  been  at  first  the  expression  of 
one  individual  poet,  or  the  slang  name  once  used  by  a 
fisherman  watching  the  sun  as  it  slowly  emerged  from 
the  clouds  in  winter.  But  the  name  possessed  vitality ; 
it  remained  current  for  a  time  ;  it  was  amplified  into 
short  proverbial  sayings ;  and  at  last,  when  the  original 
metaphor  was  lost  sight  of,  when  people  no  longer  knew 
that  the  frog  spoken  of  in  their  saws  and  proverbs  was 
meant  for  the  sun,  these  saws  and  proverbs  became 
changed  into  myths  and  legends.  In  Sanskrit  the 
name  of  the  froo;  is  "  Bheka,"  and  from  it  a  feminine 

O  7 


246  TALES  OF    1HE  WEST    HIGHLANDS. 

was  formed,  "Bheki."  This  fen  inine,  "  Bheki,':  must 
have  been  at  one  time  used  as  a  name  of  the  sun,  for 
the  sun  was  under  certain  circumstances  feminine  in 
India  as  well  as  in  Germany.  After  a  time,  when 
this  name  had  become  obsolete,  stories  were  told  of 
"  Bheki  "  which  had  a  natural  sense  only  when  told 
?f  the  sun,  and  which  are  the  same  in  character  as 
Dther  stories  told  of  heroes  or  heroines  whose  original 
solar  character  cannot  be  doubted.  Thus  we  find  in 
Sanskrit  the  story  that  "  Bheki,"  the  frog,  was  a 
beautiful  girl ;  and  that  one  day,  when  sitting  near  a 
well,  she  was  discovered  by  a  king,  who  asked  her  to 
be  his  wife.  She  consented,  on  condition  that  he 
should  never  show  her  a  drop  of  water.  One  day, 
being  tired,  she  asked  the  king  for  water,  the  king  for- 
got his  promise,  brought  water,  and  "  Bheki  "  disap- 
peared. This  story  was  known  at  the  time  when 
Kapila  wrote  his  philosophical  aphorisms  in  India,  for 
it  is  there  quoted  as  an  illustration.  But  long  before 
Kapila  the  story  of  "  Bheki  "  must  have  grown  up 
gradually,  beginning  with  a  short  saying  about  the  sun, 
—  such  as  that  "  Bheki,"  the  sun,  will  die  at  the  sight 
of  water,  as  we  should  say  that  the  sun  will  set  when 
it  approaches  the  water  from  which  it  rose  in  the 
morning.  Thus,  viewed  as  a  woman,  the  sun-frog 
might  be  changed  into  a  woman  and  married  to  a 
king ;  viewed  as  a  man  he  might  be  married  to  a 
princess.  In  either  case  stories  would  naturally  arise 
to  explain  more  or  less  fully  all  that  seemed  strange  in 
these  marriages  between  frog  and  man,  and  the  change 
from  sun  to  frog,  and  from  frog  to  man,  which  was  at 
nrst  due  to  the  mere  spell  of  language,  would,  in  our 
nursery  tales,  be  ascribed  to  miraculous  charms  more 
bioiiliar  to  a  later  age. 


TALES   OF   THE   WEST  HIGHLANDS.  247 

It  is  in  this  way  alone  that  a  comparison  of  tales, 
legends,  and  myths  can  lead  to  truly  scientific  results. 
Mere  similarity  between  stories  discovered  in  distant 
parts  of  the  world  is  no  more  than  similarity  of  sound 
between  words.  Words  may  be  identical  in  sound, 
and  yet  totally  distinct  in  origin.  In  all  branches  of 
science  we  want  to  know  the  origin  of  things,  and  to 
watch  their  growth  and  decay.  If  "  Storiology,"  as 
Mr.  Campbell  calls  it,  is  to  be  a  scientific  study,  it 
must  follow  the  same  course.  Mr.  Campbell  has 
brought  together  in  his  introduction  and  his  notes 
much  that  is  valuable  and  curious.  The  coincidences 
which  he  has  pointed  out  between  the  stories  of  the 
Western  Highlands  and  other  parts  of  the  Aryan 
world,  are  striking  in  themselves,  and  will  be  useful  for 
further  researches.  But  the  most  valuable  parts  of  his 
work  are  the  stories  themselves.  For  these  he  will  re- 
ceive the  thanks  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  study 
of  language  and  popular  literature,  and  we  hope  that 
he  will  feel  encouraged  to  go  on  with  his  work,  and 
that  his  example  will  be  followed  by  others,  in  other 
parts  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland. 

February,  1861. 


XXV. 
ON  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS.1 


THE  study  of  mankind  is  making  rapid  progress  in 
our  days.  The  early  history  of  the  human  race, 
which  in  former  centuries  was  written  chiefly  by  poets 
or  philosophers,  has  now  been  taken  up  in  good  earnest 
by  men  who  care  for  facts,  and  for  facts  only,  and  who, 
if  they  cannot  reveal  to  us  the  very  beginnings  of 
human  life  and  human  thought,  have  succeeded,  at 
least,  in  opening  broad  views  into  a  distant  past,  hith- 
erto impenetrable,  and  have  brought  together  frag- 
ments of  language,  religion,  mythology,  legends,  laws, 
and  customs  which  give  us  a  real  and  living  idea  of 
the  early  ancestors  of  our  race. 

The  first  impulse  to  these  researches  was  given  by 
the  science  of  language.  By  a  mere  classification  of 
languages  and  by  a  careful  analysis  of  words,  that 
science  has  shed  a  dazzling  light  on  the  darkest  agea 
in  the  history  of  man.  Where  all  was  guess-work 
before,  we  have  now  a  well-established  pedigree  of 
languages  and  races,  which  still  stands  the  test  of  the 
most  uncompromising  skepticism.  Who  in  the  last 
century  could  have  dreamt  of  a  genealogical  relation- 

1  Researches  into  the  Early  History  of  Mankind,  and  the  Development  of 
Civilization.  By  Edward  Burnet  Tylor,  author  of  Mexico  and  the  Mexican* 
London:  John  Murray,  1865. 


ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  249 

ship  between  the  languages  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
and  that  of  the  ancient  Hindus,  or  the  Persians  of 
Zoroaster  and  Darius.  Who  would  have  ventured  to 
maintain  that  the  Teutonic,  Celtic,  and  Slavonic  na- 
tions were  in  reality  of  the  same  kith  and  kin  as  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  who  looked  down  upon  them  as 
mere  barbarians  ?  The  change  from  the  Ptolemaic 
system  to  that  which  placed  the  sun  in  the  centre  of 
our  planetary  world  was  hardly  more  startling  than  the 
discovery  of  an  Indo-European  or  Aryan  family  of 
speech,  which  unites  by  a  common  bond  nations  so 
distant  as  the  inhabitants  of  Ceylon  and  Iceland.  And 
by  how  close  a  bond  !  Let  us  consider  but  one  in- 
stance. "  I  know  "  in  modern  German  is  "  ich  weiss  ; " 
"  we  know,"  in  the  plural,  "  wir  wissen."  Why  this 
change  of  vowel  in  the  singular  and  plural  ?  Modern 
German  can  give  us  no  answer,  nor  ancient  German, 
not  even  the  most  ancient  German  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, the  Gothic  of  Ulphilas.  Here,  too,  we  find 
"  vait,"  I  know,  with  the  diphthong  in  the  singular, 
but  "  vitum,"  we  know,  with  the  simple  vowel.  A 
similar  change  meets  us  in  the  ancient  language  of 
England,  and  King  Alfred  would  have  said  "  wat," 
I  know,  but  "  witon,"  we  know.  If,  then,  we  turn  to 
Greek  we  see  here,  too,  the  same  anomalous  transition 
from  "  (v)oida,"  I  know,  to  "  (v)ismen,"  we  know  ;  but 
we  look  in  vain  for  any  intelligible  explanation  of  so 
capricious  a  change.  At  last  we  turn  to  Sanskrit,  and 
there  not  only  do  we  meet  with  the  change  from 
"  veda,"  I  know,  to  "  vidma,"  we  know,  but  we  also 
discover  the  key  to  it.  In  Sanskrit  the  accent  of  the 
perfect  falls  throughout  on  the  first  syllable  in  the  sin- 
gular, in  the  plural  on  the  last ;  and  it  was  this  change 


250  ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

of  accent  which  produced  the  analogous  change  in  the 
length  of  the  radical  vowel.  So  small  and  apparently 
insignificant  a  fact  as  this,  the  change  of  i  into  e  (ai) 
whenever  the  accent  falls  on  it,  teaches  us  lessons 
more  important  than  all  the  traditions  put  together 
which  the  inhabitants  of  India,  Greece,  and  Germany 
have  preserved  of  their  earliest  migrations  and  of  the 
foundations  of  their  empires,  ascribed  to  their  gods,  or 
to  the  sons  of  their  gods  and  heroines.  This  one  fact 
proves  that  before  the  Hindus  migrated  to  the  south- 
ern peninsula  of  Asia,  and  before  the  Greeks  and 
Germans  had  trodden  the  soil  of  Europe,  the  common 
ancestors  of  these  three  races  spoke  one  and  the  same 
language,  a  language  so  well  regulated  and  so  firmly 
settled  that  we  can  discover  the  same  definite  outlines 
in  the  grammar  of  the  ancient  songs  of  the  Veda,  the 
poems  of  Homer,  and  the  Gothic  Bible  of  Ulphilas. 
What  does  it  mean,  then,  that  in  each  of  these  three 
languages,  "  I  know  "  is  expressed  by  a  perfect,  orig- 
inally meaning  "  I  have  perceived  ?  "  It  means  that 
this  fashion  or  idiom  had  become  permanent  before  the 
Greeks  separated  from  the  Hindus,  before  the  Hindus 
became  unintelligible  to  the  Germans.  And  what  is 
the  import  of  the  shortening  of  the  vowel  in  the 
plural,  or  rather  of  its  strengthening  in  the  singular  ? 
Its  import  is  that,  at  an  early  period  in  the  growth  of 
the  most  ancient  Aryan  language,  the  terminations 
of  the  first,  second,  and  third  persons  singular  had 
ceased  to  be  felt  as  independent  personal  pronouns  ; 
that  hence  they  had  lost  the  accent,  which  fell  back 
on  the  radical  vowel;  while  in  the  plural  the  termi- 
nations, continuing  to  be  felt  as  modificatory  pronom- 
inal suffixes,  retained  the  accent  and  left  the  radical 


ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  251 

vowel  unchanged.  This  rule  continued  to  be  observed 
in  Sanskrit  long  after  the  reason  of  it  had  ceased  to  be 
perceived.  The  change  of  accent  and  the  change  of 
vowel  remained  in  harmony.  In  Greek,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  accentuation  was  gradually  changed.  The 
accent  in  the  perfect  remained  in  the  plural  on  the 
same  vowel  as  in  the  singular ;  yet,  although  thus  the 
efficient  cause  for  the  change  in  the  vowel  had  disap- 
peared, we  find  the  Greek  continuing  to  strengthen 
the  vowel  in  the  singular  "  (v)oida,"  and  to  shorten 
it  in  the  plural  "  (v)ismen,"  instead  of  "  (v)idmen," 
just  as  their  forefathers  had  done  before  their  common 
language  had  been  broken  up  into  so  many  national 
dialects — the  Sanskrit,  the  Greek,  the  German.  The 
facts  of  language,  however  small,  are  historical  facts, 
and  require  an  historical  explanation ;  and  no  expla- 
nation of  the  fact  just  mentioned,  which  is  one  out 
of  thousands,  has  yet  been  started,  except  that  long 
before  the  earliest  literary  documents  of  Sanskrit, 
which  go  back  to  1500  B.  c.,  long  before  Homer,  long 
before  the  first  appearance  of  Latin,  Celtic,  German, 
and  Slavonic  speech,  there  must  have  been  an  earlier 
and  more  primitive  language,  the  fountain-head  of  all, 
just  as  Latin  was  the  fountain-head  of  Italian,  French, 
and  Spanish.  How  much  time  was  required  for  this 
gradual  change  and  separation,  —  how  long  it  took 
before  the  Hindus  and  Greeks,  starting  from  the  same 
centre,  became  so  different  in  their  language  as  the 
Sanskrit  of  the  Veda  is  from  the  Greek  of  Homer,  — 
is  a  question  which  no  honest  scholar  would  venture  to 
answer  in  definite  chronological  language.  It  must 
have  taken  several  generations ;  it  may  have  taken 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  years.  We  have  no  ad- 


252  ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

equate  measures  for  such  changes,  and  analogies 
derived  from  the  time  required  for  modern  changes 
are  as  deceptive  in  language  as  in  geology.  The  facts 
established  once  for  all  by  the  science  of  language  are 
important  enough  in  themselves,  even  though  the  an- 
cient periods  in  the  growth  of  human  thought  which 
have  thus  unexpectedly  been  opened  before  our  eyes 
should  resist  all  attempts  at  chronological  measure- 
ment. There  is  a  perspective  order  of  facts  which  to 
those  acquainted  with  the  facts  is  more  instructive 
than  mere  chronological  perspective  ;  and  he  who,  after 
examining  the  grammars  of  Greek  and  Sanskrit,  simply 
wonders  how  long  it  must  have  taken  before  two 
branches  of  speech,  once  united,  could  diverge  so  far, 
has  a  far  more  real  and  useful  impression  of  the  long 
process  that  led  to  such  results  than  he  who  should 
assert  that  a  thousand  years  is  the  minimum  to  account 
for  such  changes. 

What  it  is  important  to  know,  and  more  important 
than  any  dates,  is  this,  that  if  we  search  for  monu- 
ments of  the  earliest  history  of  our  race,  we  have  but 
to  look  around  us.  "  Si  monumentum  quaeris,  circum- 
spice."  Our  language,  the  dialects  spoken  at  the  pres- 
ent moment  in  every  town  and  village  of  these  islands, 
not  excluding  the  Celtic  vernaculars  of  Wales,  Ireland, 
and  Scotland ;  the  languages  again  of  Germany,  Swe- 
den, Denmark,  of  Italy,  France,  Spain,  of  Russia  and 
her  dependencies,  of  Persia  and  of  India ;  these  are 
the  most  ancient  monuments,  these  are  the  ancient 
mounds  through  which  we  may  run  our  trenches  if  we 
wish  to  discover  beneath  their  surface  the  very  palaces 
which  were  the  homes  of  our  forefathers,  the  very 
temples  in  which  they  prayed  and  worshipped,  Lan- 


ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  253 

guages,  it  is  true,  are  constantly  changing,  but  miver 
in  the  history  of  man  has  there  been  a  new  language. 
What  does  that  mean  ?  Neither  more  nor  less  than 
that  in  speaking  as  we  do,  we  are  using  the  same  ma- 
terials, however  broken  up,  crushed,  and  put  together 
anew,  which  were  handled  by  the  first  speaker,  i.  e. 
the  first  real  ancestor  of  our  race.  Call  that  ancestor 
Adam,  and  the  world  is  still  speaking  the  language  of 
Adam.  Call  those  ancestors  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet, 
and  the  races  of  mankind  are  still  speaking  the  lan- 
guages of  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet.  Or  if  we  use  the 
terminology  of  the  science  of  language,  we  say  again 
that  all  Aryan  nations  are  still  speaking  the  language 
of  the  founders  and  fathers  of  the  Aryan  family,  in 
the  same  sense  in  which  Dante  speaks  the  language  of 
Virgil,  or  Guizot  the  language  of  Cicero  ;  that  all 
Semitic  nations  speak  but  varieties  of  the  original 
speech  of  their  first  ancestors,  and  that  the  languages 
of  the  Turanian  or  Allophylic  tribes  are  so  many  rivers 
and  rivulets  diverging  from  distant  centres,  changing 
so  rapidly  as  almost  to  lose  their  own  identity,  yet  in 
their  first  beginnings  as  ancient  as  any  of  the  Aryan 
or  Semitic  branches  of  speech.  The  very  words,  which 
we  are  here  using  have  their  first  beginning  nowhere 
within  the  recollection  of  history.  We  hear  of  the 
invention  of  new  tools  and  weapons,  we  never  hear  of 
the  invention  of  new  languages  or  even  of  new  words. 
New  words  are  old  words ;  old  in  their  material  ele- 
ments, though  new,  and  constantly  renewed,  in  their 
form.  If  we  analyze  any  word,  its  last  radical  ele- 
ments, those  elements  which  resist  further  analysis,  arc 
prehistoric,  primordial,  older  than  anything  human  in 
the  realm  of  nature  or  the  realm  of  thought.  In  thest. 


254  ON   MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

words,  if  carefully  analyzed,  is  to  be  read  the  history 
of  the  human  mind,  the  gradual  progress  from  simple 
to  mixed  modes  of  thought,  from  material  to  abstract 
conceptions,  from  clear  to  obscure  metaphors.  Let  us 
take  one  instance.  Do  we  want  to  know  what  was 
uppermost  in  the  minds  of  those  who  formed  the  word 
for  punishment,  the  Latin  paena,  or  punio,  to  punish  ; 
the  root  "  pu  "  in  Sanskrit,  which  means  to  cleanse,  to 
purify,  tells  us  that  the  Latin  derivative  was  originally 
formed,  not  to  express  mere  striking  or  torturing,  but 
cleansing,  correcting,  delivering  from  the  stain  of  sin. 
In  Sanskrit  many  a  god  is  implored  to  cleanse  away 
("  pumhi")  the  sins  of  men,  and  the  substantive  "pa- 
vana,"  though  it  did  not  come  to  mean  punishment,— 
this  in  Sanskrit  is  called  by  the  most  appropriate  name 
"daw^a,"  stick,  —  took  in  later  times  the  sense  of  pu- 
rification and  penance.  Now,  it  is  clear  that  the  train 
of  thought  which  leads  from  purification  to  penance  or 
from  purification  to  punishment  reveals  a  moral  and 
even  a  religious  sentiment  in  the  conception  and  nam- 
ing of  poena  ;  and  it  shows  us  that  in  the  very  infancy 
of  criminal  justice  punishment  was  looked  upon,  not 
simply  as  a  retribution  or  revenge,  but  as  a  correction, 
as  a  removal  of  guilt.  We  do  not  feel  the  presence 
of  these  early  thoughts  when  we  speak  of  corporal 
punishment  or  castigation  ;  yet  "  castigation,"  too,  was 
originally  "  chastening,"  from  castus,  pure  ;  and  inces- 
tum  was  impurity  or  sin,  which,  according  to  Roman 
law,  the  priests  had  to  make  good,  or  to  punish,  by  a 
supplicium,  a  supplication  or  prostration  before  the 
gods.  The  power  of  punishment,  originally  belonging 
tc  the  father,  as  part  of  his  patria  potestas*  was  grad- 
ually transferred  to  the  king ;  and  if  we  want  to  know 


ON   MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  255 

the  original  conception  of  kingship  among  the  Aryan 
nations,  we  have  again  only  to  analyze  etymologically 
some  of  their  names  for  kino;.  These  names  tell  us 

O 

nothing  of  divinely  given  prerogative,  nor  of  the  pos- 
session of  supereminent  strength,  courage,  and  wisdom. 
"  6ranaka,"  one  of  the  words  for  king  in  Sanskrit, 
means  originally  parent,  father,  then  king,  thus  show- 
ing the  natural  transition  from  father  to  king,  from  pa- 
tria  to  reyia  potestas.  It  was  an  important  remark  of 
one  of  the  most  thoughtful  etymologists,  Jacob  Grimm, 
that  the  Old  Norse  word  for  king,  "  Konungr,"  or 
"  Kongr,"  cannot,  as  was  commonly  supposed,  be  de- 
rived from  the  Old  Norse  "  kyn,"  race,  nor  the  Anglo 
Saxon  "  cyning,"  from  "  cyn,"  kin,  family.  King  is 
an  old  word  common  to  the  three  branches  of  the 
Teutonic  races,  not  coined  afresh  in  Sweden,  England, 
and  Germany,  nay,  not  even  coined  out  of  purely 
German  ore.  It  did  not  mean  originally  a  man  of 
family,  a  man  of  noble  birth,  but  it  is,  as  we  said,  in 
reality  the  same  word,  both  in  form  and  meaning,  as 
the  Sanskrit  "^ranaka,"  formed  previously  to  the  separ- 
ation of  Sanskrit,  from  German,  and  meaning  origin- 
ally father,  secondly,  king. 

And  here  we  perceive  the  difference  between  ety- 
mology and  definition,  which  has  so  often  been  over- 
looked. The  etymology  of  a  word  can  never  give  us 
its  definition  ;  it  can  only  supply  us  with  historical  evi- 
dence that  at  the  time  when  a  word  was  formed,  its 
predicative  power  represented  one  out  of  many  charac- 
teristic features  of  the  object  to  which  it  was  applied. 
We  are  not  justified  in  saying  that  because  punire 
meant  originally  to  p  arify,  therefore  the  Roman  con- 
ception of  punishment  wa.s  exclusively  that  of  purifi- 


256  ON  MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS. 

cation.  All  we  can  say  is  that  one  aspect  of  punish- 
ment, which  struck  the  earliest  framers  of  the  language 
of  Italy,  was  that  of  expiation.  Other  views  of  punish- 
ment, however,  were  by  no  means  overlooked,  but 
found  manifold  expression  in  synonymous  words.  Thus 
the  transition  of  meaning  from  father  to  king  shows 
that  as  in  each  family  the  eldest  male  parent  was  su- 
preme, so  when  families  grew  into  clans,  tribes,  and 
nations,  a  similar  supremacy  over  these  larger  com- 
munities was  allowed  to  one  of  the  fathers  or  elders. 
It  shows  us  one  phase  in  the  origin  of  patriarchal  king- 
ship, one  so  well  brought  out  by  Mr.  Maine  in  his 
"  Ancient  Law  ; "  but  it  neither  proves  that  kingly 
government  among  the  Aryan  nations  was  always  pa- 
ternal, nor  that  there  were  no  other  steps  to  sovereign 
power.  Words  such  as  rex,  from  regere,  to  steer ;  dux, 
from  ducere,  to  lead,  or  imperator,  a  general,  tell  us  of 
different  ways  in  which  ancient  dynasties  were  founded. 
By  this  process  of  comparing  and  analyzing  words, 
particularly  words  common  to  many  or  all  of  the  Aryan 
nations,  it  has  been  possible  to  recover  some  of  the 
thoughts  that  filled  the  hearts  and  minds  of  our  own 

O 

most  distant  ancestors,  of  a  race  of  men  who  lived  we 
know  not  where  and  when,  but  to  whose  intellectual 
labors  we  owe  not  only  the  precious  ore,  but  much  of 
the  ready  money  which  still  forms  the  intellectual  cur- 
rency of  the  Aryan  world.  Our  dictionaries  are  but 
new  editions  of  their  dictionary  ;  our  grammars  but  ab- 
stracts of  their  grammar.  If  we  are  what  we  are,  not 
only  by  flesh  and  blood,  but  by  thought  and  language, 
then  our  true  kith  and  kin  are  to  be  found  among  the 
nations  of  Greece  and  Italy,  of  India  and  Persia ;  OUT 
true  ancestors  he  bured  in  that  central  Aryan  home 


ON   MANNERS   AND  CUSTOMS.  257 

from  which,  at  a  time  long  before  the  fifteenth  century 
B.  c.,  migrated  those  who  brought  to  India  the  language 
of  the  Vedas,  and  to  the  shores  of  the  uEgean  Sea  the 
language  of  the  Homeric  songs. 

Here,  however,  the  science  of  language  does  not 
stop.  Not  satisfied  with  having  proved  the  original 
identity  of  the  grammatical  structure  of  Sanskrit,  Per- 
sian, Greek,  Latin,  the  Teutonic,  Slavonic,  and  Celtic 
dialects,  and  thus  having  brought  to  light  the  original 
meaning  of  their  words,  it  proceeded  to  establish  an- 
other fact  of  equal  importance,  and  to  open  a  new 
field  of  research  of  even  greater  interest.  It  showed 
that  the  broad  outlines  of  the  ancient  relations  of 

o 

those  races  were  likewise  the  same ;  that  originally  they 
all  worshipped  the  same  gods,  and  that  their  earliest 
communities  were  not  broken  up  before  such  preg- 
nant conceptions  as  "  God,"  "  evil  spirit,"  "heaven," 
"  sacred,"  "  to  worship,"  "  to  believe,"  had  found  ex- 
pression. The  comparison  of  the  different  forms  of 
Aryan  religion  and  mythology  in  India,  Persia,  Greece, 
Italy,  and  Germany,  has  followed  closely  in  the  wake 
of  comparative  philology,  and  its  results  cannot  fail  to 
modify  largely  the  views  commonly  entertained  of  the 
origin  of  the  religions  of  mankind. 

Nor  was  this  all.  It  was  soon  perceived  that  in  each 
of  these  nations  there  was  a  tendency  to  change  the 
original  conception  of  divine  powers,  to  misunderstand 
the  many  names  given  to  these  powers,  and  to  misin- 
terpret the  praises  addressed  to  them.  In  this  manner 
some  of  the  divine  names  were  changed  into  half- 
divine,  half-human  heroes ;  and  at  last  the  myths  which 
were  true  and  intelligible  as  told  originally  of  the  sun, 
or  the  dawn,  or  the  storms,  were  turned  into  legends 


258  ON   MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS, 

or  fables  too  marvelous  to  be  believed  of  common 
mortals,  yet  too  profane  to  be  believed  any  longer  of 
gods  like  those  who  were  worshipped  by  the  contem- 
poraries of  Thales  or  Herakleitos.  This  process  can  be 
watched  in  India,  in  Greece,  in  Germany.  The  same 
story,  or  nearly  the  same,  is  told  of  gods,  of  heroes, 
and  of  men.  The  divine  myth  becomes  an  heroic 
legend,  and  the  heroic  legend  fades  away  into  a  nursery 
tale.  Our  nursery  tales  have  well  been  called  the 
modern  patois  of  the  ancient  sacred  mythology  of  the 
Aryan  race,  and  as  there  are  similarities  between  Hin- 
dustani and  French  (such  similarities  as  we  may  ex- 
pect between  distant  cousins),  we  may  well  understand 
how  it  came  to  pass  that  in  many  of  the  Norse  tales  or 
in  Grimm's  "  Mahrchen  "  the  burden  of  the  story  is 
the  same  as  in  the  Eastern  fairy  tales  and  in  Grecian 
fables.  Here,  too,  the  ground- plan  of  a  new  science 
has  been  sketched  out,  and  broken  relics  of  the  ancient 
folk-lore  of  the  Aryan  family  have  been  picked  up  in 
the  cottages  of  Scotland,  the  spinning-rooms  of  Ger- 
many, the  bazaars  of  Herat,  and  the  monasteries  of 
Ceylon. 

Thus  we  have  finished  our  survey  of  the  various  in- 
quiries into  the  ancient  "  works  and  days  "  of  man- 
kind which  have  been  set  on  foot  by  the  students  of 
the  science  of  language,  and  we  have  reached  at  last 
that  point  where  we  may  properly  appreciate  the  ob- 
ject and  character  of  Mr.  Tylor's  book,  "  Researches 
into  the  Early  History  of  Mankind  and  the  Develop- 
ment of  Civilization."  The  question  had  often  been 
asked,  —  if  everything  in  language  which  seems  mod- 
ern is  really  so  very  old,  if  an  unbroken  chain  unites 
our  thoughts  with  the  first  stammerings  of  our  Aryan 


ON   MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS.  259 

forefathers,  if  the  Robin  Hood  of  our  nursery  tales  is 
only  a  disguise  of  the  Northern  god  Wodan  or  Odin, 
and  our  Harlequin  a  mollified  representative  of  the 
Hellequin  of  the  Franks,  why  should  not  the  same 
apply  to  many  of  our  manners  and  customs  ?  It  is 
true  we  are  no  longer  shepherds  and  hunters,  like  our 
earlier  forefathers.  We  wash,  and  comb,  and  dress, 
and  shave,  while  they  had  no  names  for  soap  or  razors, 
for  combs  or  kilts.  They  were  uncivilized  Pagans  — 
we  are  civilized  Christians.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  these 
differences,  it  Avas  thought  to  be  a  question  of  interest 
whether  some  of  our  modern  customs  might  not  be 
traced  back  to  earlier  sources,  and  be  shown  to  have 
prevailed  not  only  on  Teutonic  soil,  but  among  several, 
or  all,  of  the  races  which  together  form  the  Aryar. 
family.  Jacob  Grimm  wrote  a  most  interesting  paper 
on  the  different  forms  of  burial,  and  he  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  both  burning  and  burying  were  recog- 
nized forms  of  sepulture  among  the  Aryan  nations 
from  the  earliest  times,  but  that  burning  was  originally 
preferred  by  nomadic,  burying  by  agricultural  tribes. 
He  likewise  showed  that  the  burning  of  widows  was 
by  no  means  a  custom  confined  to  India,  but  that  it 
existed  in  earlier  times  among  Thracians,  Getae,  and 
Scythians,  and  that  the  self-immolation  of  Brynhild  on 
the  pile  of  Sigurd  was  by  no  means  an  isolated  instance 
in  the  mythology  of  the  Teutonic  race.  Curious  coin- 
cidences have  likewise  been  pointed  out  in  the  mar- 
riage ceremonies  of  the  Hindus,  Greeks,  Romans,  and 
Germans,  and  not  a  few  of  the  laws  and  customs  of 
the  Teutonic  tribes  have  been  traced  back  by  Grimm, 
with  a  more  or  less  success,  to  corresponding  laws  and 
customs  in  India,  Greece,  and  Italy. 


260  ON   MANNERS    S.ND   CUSTOMS. 

It  is,  no  doubt,  desirable  in  researches  of  this  kind 
to  keep  at  first  within  the  bounds  laid  down  by  the 
science  of  language,  and  to  compare  the  customs  of 
those  nations  only  whose  languages  are  known  to  be 
of  the  same  origin.  A  comparative  study  of  Aryan 
customs,  of  Semitic  customs,  of  Turanian  customs, 
would  yield  more  satisfactory  results  than  a  promis- 
cuous intercomparison  of  the  customs  of  all  mankind. 
In  a  book  recently  published  by  Mr.  McLennan  "  On 
Primitive  Marriage,"  in  which  he  proves  that  among 
many  nations  wives  were  originally  captured,  and  that 
the  form  of  capture  remained  as  a  symbol  in  the  mar- 
riage ceremonies  of  later  ages,  the  want  of  some  sys- 
tematic treatment  of  this  kind  is  felt  very  much,  and 
while  we  find  evidence  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe 
in  support  of  his  theory,  we  miss  a  due  consideration 
of  what  is  nearer  home  ;  for  instance,  the  Old  Norse 
word  "  quan-fang,"  "  wife -catching,"  and  the  German 
"  brut-loufti,"  "  bride-racing,"  both  used  in  the  sense 
of  marriage. 

At  the  same  time,  a  more  comprehensive  study  of 
customs  is  necessary  as  a  corrective  for  more  special 
inquiries.  If  we  find  the  same  custom  in  India  and 
in  Greece,  we  are  apt  to  suppose  that  it  must  have 
sprung  from  a  common  source,  and  we  are  inclined  to 
ascribe  its  origin  to  the  times  preceding  the  Aryan 
separation.  But  if  we  find  exactly  the  same  custom 
in  America  or  Australia,  we  are  warned  at  once  against 
too  hasty  conclusions.  In  this  respect  Mr.  McLennan's 
book  is  very  useful.  We  learn,  for  instance,  that  bride- 
racing,  even  as  a  merely  symbolic  ceremony,  was  by 
no  means  confined  to  the  Aryan  nations.  Among  the 
wild  tribes  of  the  ]\Ialay  peninsula  the  bride  and  bride- 


ON   MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS.  261 

groom  are  led  by  one  of  the  old  men  jf  the  tribe 
towards  a  circle.  The  girl  runs  round  first,  and  the 
young  man  pursues  a  short  distance  behind ;  if  he  suc- 
ked in  reaching  and  retaining  her,  she  becomes  his 
wife  ;  if  not,  he  loses  all  claim  to  her.  As  in  a  com- 
parative study  of  laws  we  must  learn  to  distinguish  the 
surface  of  conventional  statutes  from  the  lower  and 
far  more  widely  extending  substratum  of  morality,  so 
in  a  comparative  study  of  customs,  it  is  necessary  to 
separate  what  is  conventional,  individual,  local,  or  na- 
tional from  what  is  natural,  general,  universal,  and 
simply  human.  If,  for  instance,  we  found  metrical  and 
rhythmical  poetry  in  Greece,  Rome,  and  India  only,  we 
might  look  upon  it  as  an  invention  peculiar  to  the  Aryan 
race  ;  but  if  we  find  the  same  among  Semitic  and 
Turanian  races,  we  see  at  once  that  metre  and  rhythm 
are  forms  which  human  language  naturally  assumes, 
and  which  may  be  brought  to  more  or  less  perfection 
under  circumstances  more  or  less  favorable.  Lolling 
out  the  tongue  as  a  sign  of  contempt  is  certainly  an 
ancient  Aryan  custom,  for  the  verb  "  lal  "  is  found  in 
Sanskrit  with  the  same  meaning  as  in  English.  Yet 
this  gesture  is  not  restricted  to  Aryan  nations.  Rub- 
bing of  noses,  by  way  of  salutation,  might  seem  pecul- 
iar to  the  New  Zealander ;  but  it  exists  in  China,  and 
LinnaBus  found  the  same  habit  in  the  Lapland  Alps. 
Here  we  perceive  the  principal  difficulty  in  what  may 
be  called  eihological  as  distinguished  from  ethnological 
researches  ;  and  we  see  why  it  is  necessary  that  in  a 
comparative  study  of  manners  special  studies  should 
always  be  checked  by  more  general  observations. 

In  the  volume  before  us,  which  we  hope  is  only  the 
first  of  a  long  series,  Mr.  Tvlor  has  brought  together 


262  ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

the  most  valuable  evidence  as  to  the  similarity  of  cus- 
toms, not  only  among  races  linguistically  related  to  each 
other,  but  likewise  among  races  whose  languages  are 
totally  distinct.  He  has  been  a  most  patient  and  accu- 
rate collector  of  facts,  and,  considering  how  few  pred- 
ecessors he  has  had  in  this  branch  of  study,  he  de- 
serves great  credit  for  his  industry  in  collecting  and  his 
good  sense  in  arranging  his  evidence.  He  expresses 
himself  indebted  to  Dr.  Gustav  Clemm,  of  Dresden, 
and  Dr.  Bastian,  whose  works  on  the  history  of  civili- 
zation are  frequently  quoted.  But  Mr.  Tylor  has  sup- 
plied that  which  was  wanting  in  those  works,  by  giving 
life  and  purpose  to  facts,  and  making  them  instructive, 
instead  of  being  simply  oppressive.  Some  articles  by 
Professor  Lazarus,  too,  are  quoted  from  a  German 
periodical  specially  devoted  to  what  is  called  "  Volker- 
psychologie,"  or  ethnic  psychology  ;  but  they  are  the 
works  of  a  philosopher  rather  than  of  a  collector  of 
facts.  They  are  full  of  deep  metaphysical  specula- 
tions, and  we  do  not  wonder  at  Mr.  Tylor's  remarks, 
who,  when  quoting  a  particularly  lucid  and  eloquent 
passage  on  the  relation  of  speech  to  thought,  observes, 
"  Transcendental  as  it  is,  it  is  put  in  such  clear  terms 
that  we  may  almost  think  we  understand  it." 

Mr.  Tylor  is  particularly  free  from  foregone  conclu- 
sions ;  nay,  he  has  been  blamed  for  not  attempting  to 
bring  his  researches  more  to  a  point,  and  drawing  gen- 
eral conclusions  from  the  statements  which  he  has 
grouped  so  well  together.  We  have  no  doubt  that  his 
book  would  have  been  read  with  keener  interest,  if  it 
had  been  written  in  support  of  any  popular  or  unpop- 
ular theory,  or  if  certain  conclusions  to  which  his  re- 
searches seem  to  lead  had  been  laid  down  as  indubit- 


ON   MANNERS   AND    CUSTOMS.  263 

able  facts.  But  what  thus  detracts  from  the  ephemeral 
interest  will  increase  the  permanent  value  of  his  work. 

"  The  ethnologist,"  says  Mr.  Tylor  (p.  273),  "  must 
have  derived  from  observation  of  many  cases  a  general 
notion  of  what  man  does  and  does  not  do  before  he 
can  say  of  any  particular  custom  which  he  finds  in  two 
distant  places  either  that  it  is  likely  that  a  similar  state 
of  things  may  have  produced  it  more  than  once,  or 
that  it  is  unlikely  —  that  it  is  even  so  unlikely  as  to 
approach  the  limit  of  impossibility — that  such  a  thing 
should  have  grown  up  independently  in  the  two,  or 
three,  or  twenty  places  where  he  finds  it.  In  the  first 
case,  it  is  worth  little  or  nothing  to  him  as  evidence 
bearing  on  the  early  history  of  mankind,  but  in  the 
latter  it  goes  with  more  or  less  force  to  prove  that 
the  people  who  possess  it  are  allied  by  blood,  or  have 
been  in  contact,  or  have  been  influenced  indirectly  one 
from  the  other,  or  both  from  a  common  source,  or  that 
some  combination  of  these  things  has  happened  ;  in  a 
word,  that  there  has  been  historical  connection  between 
them." 

Thus,  Mr.  Tylor  argues  very  correctly  that  a  belief 
in  immortality,  which  is  found  in  many  parts  of  the 
world,  is  no  proof  of  any  historical  contact  between 
the  nations  that  hold  it.  The  ancient  Hindus  believed 
in  immortality,  and  in  personal  immortality  ;  and  we 
find  them  in  the  Veda  praying  to  their  gods  that  they 
might  see  their  fathers  and  mothers  again  in  the  bright 
world  to  come.  We  can  hardly  imagine  such  a  prayer 
from  the  lips  of  a  Greek  or  a  Roman,  though  it  would 
not  surprise  us  in  the  sacred  groves  of  ancient  Ger- 
many. What  a  deeply  interesting  work  might  be  writ- 
ten on  this  one  subject  —  on  the  different  forms  which  a 


264  ON  MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS. 

belief  in  immortality  has  assumed  among  the  different 
races  of  mankind  !  We  shall  here  only  mention  a  few 
of  its  lowest  forms. 

The  Greenlander  believes  that  when  a  man  dies  his 
soul  travels  to  Torngarsuk,  the  land  where  reigns  per- 
petual summer,  all  sunshine,  and  no  night ;  where 
there  is  good  water,  and  birds,  fish,  seals,  and  reindeer 
;  without  end,  that  are  to  be  caught  without  trouble,  or 
are  found  cooking  alive  in  a  huge  kettle.  But  the  jour- 
ney to  this  land  is  difficult ;  the  souls  have  to  slide  five 
days  or  more  down  a  precipice  all  stained  with  the 
blood  of  those  who  have  gone  down  before.  And  it  is 
especially  grievous  for  the  poor  souls,  when  the  journey 
must  be  made  in  winter  or  in  tempest,  for  then  a  soul 
may  come  to  harm,  or  suffer  the  other  death,  as  they 
call  it,  when  it  perishes  utterly,  and  nothing  is  left. 
The  bridge  Es-Sirat,  which  stretches  over  the  midst  of 
the  Moslem  hell,  finer  than  a  hair,  and  sharper  than 
the  edge  of  a  sword,  conveys  a  similar  conception  ;  and 
the  Jews,  too,  when  they  came  to  believe  in  immor- 
tality, imagined  a  bridge  of  hell,  at  least  for  unbe- 
lievers to  pass.  Mr.  Tylor  traces  this  idea  of  a  bridge 
in  Java,  in  North  America,  in  South  America,  and  he 
shows  how,  in  Polynesia,  the  bridge  is  replaced  by 
canoes  in  which  the  souls  had  to  pass  the  great  gulf. 

The  native  tribes  of  the  lower  end  of  South  Amer- 
ica believe  in  two  great  powers  of  good  and  evil,  but 
likewise  in  a  number  of  inferior  deities.  These  are 
supposed  to  have  been  the  creators  and  ancestors  of 
different  families,  and  hence  when  an  Indian  dies  his 
soul  goes  to  live  with  the  deity  who  presides  over  his 
particular  family.  These  deities  have  each  their  separ- 
ate habitations  in  vast  caverns  under  the  earth,  and 


ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  265 

thither  the  departed  repair  to  enjoy  the  happiness  of 
being  eternally  drunk. 

Messrs.  Lewis  and  Clarke  give  the  following  account 
of  the  belief  in  a  future  state  entertained  by  another 
American  tribe,  the  Mandans  :  — 

"  Their  belief  in  a  future  state  is  connected  with  thisV 
tradition  of  their  origin  :    The  whole  nation  resided  in 
one  large  village  underground  near  a   subterraneous 
lake.     A  grape-vine  extended  its  roots  down  to  then 
habitation  and  gave  them  a  view  of  the  hVht.     Some 

o  o 

of  the  most  adventurous  climbed  up  the  vine,  and 
were  delighted  with  the  sight  of  the  earth,  which  they 
found  covered  with  buffalo,  and  rich  with  every  kind 
of  fruit.  Returning  with  the  grapes  they  had  gath- 
ered, their  countrymen  were  so  pleased  with  the  taste 
of  them  that  the  whole  nation  resolved  to  leave  their 
dull  residence  for  the  charms  of  the  upper  region. 
Men,  women,  and  children  ascended  by  means  of  the 
vine,  but  when  about  half  the  nation  had  reached  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  a  corpulent  woman  who  was 
clambering  up  the  vine  broke  it  with  her  weight,  and 
closed  upon  herself  and  the  rest  of  the  nation  the  light 
of  the  sun.  Those  who  were  left  on  earth  made  a 
village  below  where  we  saw  the  vine  villages ;  and 
when  the  Mandans  die  they  expect  to  return  to  the 
original  seats  of  their  forefathers,  the  good  reaching 
the  ancient  village  by  means  of  the  lake,  which  the 
burden  of  the  sins  of  the  wicked  will  not  enable  them 
to  cross." 

Mr.  Tylor  aptly  compares  the  fable  of  the  vine  and 
the  fat  woman  with  the  story  of  "  Jack  and  the  Bean- 
stalk," and  he  brings  other  stories  from  Malay  and 
Polynesian  districts  embodying  the  same  idea.  Among 


266  ON  MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS. 

the  different  ways  by  which  it  was  thought  possible  to 
ascend  from  earth  to  heaven,  Mr.  Tylor  mentions  the 
rank  spear-grass,  a  rope  or  thong,  a  spider's  wtb,  a 
ladder  of  iron  or  gold,  a  column  of  smoke,  or  the  rain- 
bow. In  the  Mongolic  tales  of  Gesser  Chan  the  hero 
lets  himself  down  from  heaven  and  ascends  again  by 
means  of  a  chain. 

The  Polynesians  imagine  that  the  sky  descends  at 
tho  horizon  and  incloses  the  earth.  Hence  they  call 
foreigners  "papalangi,''  or  "heaven-bursters,"  as  hav- 
ing broken  in  from  another  world  outside.  According 
to  their  views,  we  live  upon  the  ground-floor  of  a  great 
house,  with  upper  stories  rising  one  over  another  above 
us  and  cellars  down  below.  There  are  holes  in  the 
ceiling  to  let  the  rain  through,  and  as  men  are  supposed 
to  visit  the  dwellers  above,  the  dwellers  from  below  are 
believed  to  come  sometimes  up  to  the  surface,  and  like- 
\jvise  to  receive  visits  from  men  in  return. 

Catlin's  account  of  the  Choctaw  belief  in  a  future 
state  is  equally  curious.  They  hold  that  the  spirit  lives 
after  death,  and  that  it  has  a  great  distance  to  travel 
towards  the  west ;  that  it  has  to  cross  a  dreadful,  deep, 
and  rapid  stream,  over  which,  from  hill  to  hill,  there 
lies  a  long,  slippery  pine  log,  with  the  bark  peeled  off. 
Over  this  the  dead  have  to  pass  before  they  reach  the 
delightful  hunting-grounds.  The  good  walk  on  safely, 
though  six  people  from  the  other  side  throw  stones  at 
them ;  but  the  wicked,  trying  to  dodge  the  stones,  slip 
off  the  log,  and  fall  thousands  of  feet  into  the  water 
'which  is  dashing  over  the  rocks. 

The  New  Hollanders,  according  to  Mr.  Oldfield,  be- 
lieve that  all  who  are  good  men  and  have  been  prop- 
erly buried,  enter  heaven  after  death.  Heaven,  which 


ON   MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  267 

is  the  abode  of  the  two  good  divinities,  is  represented 
as  a  delightful  place,  where  there  is  abundance  of  game 
and  food,  never  any  excess  of  heat  or  cold,  rain  or 
drought,  no  malign  spirits,  no  sickness  or  death ;  but 
plenty  of  rioting,  singing,  and  dancing  for  evermore. 
They  also  believe  in  an  evil  spirit  who  dwells  in  the 
nethermost  regions,  and,  strange  to  say,  they  represent 
him  with  horns  and  a  tail,  though  one  would  think  that 
prior  to  the  introduction  of  cattle  into  New  Holland, 
the  natives  could  not  have  been  aware  of  the  existence 
of  horned  beasts. 

Now,  with  regard  to  all  these  forms  of  belief  in  a 
future  state,  Mr.  Tylor  would  hold  that  they  had  arisen 
independently  among  different  races,  and  that  they 
supply  no  argument  in  favor  of  any  historical  connec- 
tion between  these  races.  But  let  us  now  take  a  dif- 
ferent instance.  When  we  find  in  Africa  the  same 
beast  fables  with  which  we  are  familiar  from  "  Reynard 
the  Fox,"  then  the  coincidence  is  such  that,  according 
to  Mr.  Tylor,  it  cannot  be  ascribed  to  natural  causes. 

"  Dr.  Dasent,"  he  writes,  "  in  his  Introduction  to  the 
Norse  Tales,  has  shown  that  popular  stories  found  in 
the  west  and  south  of  Africa  must  have  come  from  the 
same  source  with  old  myths  current  in  distant  regions 
of  Europe.  Still  later,  Dr.  Bleek  has  published  a  col- 
lection of  Hottentot  Fables,  '  Reynard  the  Fox  in 
South  Africa,'  which  shows  that  other  mythic  episodes, 
long  familiar  in  remote  countries,  have  established 
themselves  among  these  rude  people  as  household  tales. 
As  it  happens,  we  know  from  other  sources  enough  to 
explain  the  appearance  in  South  Africa  of  stories  from 
Revnard  by  referring  them  to  European,  and  more 
particularly  to  Dutch  influences.  But,  even  without 


268  ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

such  knowledge,  the  tales  themselves  prove  an  histor- 
ical connection,  near  or  remote,  between  Europe  ana 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope." 

Where  coincidences  occur  in  the  customs  and  tradi- 
tions of  nations  who,  as  far  as  history  tells  us,  have 
never  had  any  intercourse  together,  Mr.  Tylor  simply 
registers  the  fact,  without  drawing  further  conclusions. 
He  has,  indeed,  endeavored  in  one  instance  to  estab- 
lish an  historical  connection  between  the  mythology  of 
America  and  that  of  Asia  and  the  rest  of  the  world, 
on  the  strength  of  a  certain  similarity  of  legends ;  but 
we  doubt  whether  his  evidence,  however  striking,  is 
strong  enough  to  support  so  bold  an  arch.  There  is  in 
the  popular  traditions  of  Central  America  the  story  of 
two  brothers  who,  starting  on  their  dangerous  journey 
to  the  land  of  Xibalba,  where  their  father  had  perished, 
plant  each  a  cane  in  the  middle  of  their  grandmother's 
house  that  she  may  know  by  its  flourishing  or  wither- 
ing whether  they  are  alive  or  dead.  Exactly  the  same 
conception  occurs  in  Grimm's  "  Mahrchen."  When 
the  two  gold-children  wish  to  see  the  world  and  to 
leave  their  father,  and  when  their  father  is  sad  and 
asks  them  how  he  shall  have  news  of  them,  they  tell 
him,  "  We  leave  you  the  two  golden  lilies  ;  from  these 
you  can  see  how  we  fare.  If  they  are  fresh,  we  are 
well ;  if  they  fade,  we  are  ill ;  if  they  fall,  we  are 
dead."  Grimm  traces  the  same  idea  in  Indian  stories. 
Now  this  idea  is  strange  enough,  and  its  occurrence  in 
India,  Germany,  and  Central  America  is  stranger  still. 
If  it  occurred  in  Indian  and  German  tales  only,  we 
might  consider  it  as  ancient  Aryan  property,  but  when 
we  find  it  again  in  Central  America,  nothing  remains 
bT.t  either  to  admit  a  later  communication  between 


ON  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS.  269 

European  settlers  and  native  American  story-tellers  — 
an  admission  which,  though  difficult,  is  not  quite  im- 
possible ;  or  to  inquire  whether  there  is  not  some  in- 
telligible and  truly  human  element  in  this  supposed 
sympathy  between  the  life  of  flowers  and  the  life  of 
man.  Mr.  Tylor  himself  has  brought  together  anal- 
ogous cases  in  his  chapter  of  images  and  names. 
Thus,  when  a  Maori  war-party  is  to  start,  the  priests 
set  up  sticks  in  the  ground  to  represent  the  warriors, 
and  he  whose  stick  is  blown  down,  is  to  fall  in  the  bat- 
tle. In  British  Guiana,  when  young  children  are  be- 
trothed, trees  are  planted  by  the  respective  parties  in 
witness  of  the  contract,  and  if  either  tree  should  hap- 
pen to  wither,  the  child  it  belongs  to  is  sure  to  die. 
And  surely  this  is  a  feeling  in  which  many  can  share 
even  in  this  enlightened  age.  Perhaps  we  should  only 
call  it  unlucky  if  a  tree  planted  by  an  absent  child 
were  suddenly  to  wither,  or  if  a  distant  friend's  por- 
trait were  to  fall  from  the  wall,  or  if  a  wedding-ring 
were  to  roll  off  the  finger ;  yet  the  fact  that  we  call 
such  things  unlucky  shows  that  there  must  be  some- 
thing human  in  the  sentiment  which  prompted  the 
story  of  the  gold-children,  and  of  the  brothers  who 
went  to  Xibalba,  and  that  we  need  not  on  that  account 
admit  an  historical  intercourse  between  the  aborigines 
of  Guatemala  and  the  Aryans  of  India  and  Germany. 
It  is  likewise  a  curious  coincidence  that  the  Mex  , 
icans  represent  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  as  the  moon\ 
being  devoured  by  a  dragon,  and  that  the  Hindus  do 
just  the  same  ;  nay,  both  nations  continued  to  use  this  J  ^ 
expression  long  after  they  ha  \  discovered  the  true  1 
cause  of  an  eclipse.  Yet  here  again  the  original  con-y 
ception  is  natural  and  intelligible,  and  its  occurrence 


270  ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

in  India  and  Mexico  need  not  be  the  result  of  any  his- 
torical intercourse.  We  know  that  such  an  intercourse 
was  suspected  by  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  and  we 
are  far  from  considering  it  impossible.  But  the  evi- 
dence on  the  American  side  requires  more  careful  sift- 
ing than  it  has  yet  received  ;  and  we  must  remind  Mr. 
Tylor  that  even  the  MS.  of  the  "Popul  Vuh,"  to 
which  he  refers  for  ancient  American  traditions,  has 
never  been  traced  beyond  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  that  even  had  it  been  written  towards  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  would  not  have  been 
quite  safe  from  European  influences. 

That  there  was  in  very  early  days  a  migration  from 
the  northeast  of  Asia  to  the  northwest  of  America  is, 
as  yet,  a  postulate  only.  There  are  scattered  indica- 
tions in  the  languages  and  traditions,  as  well  as  in  the 
fauna  and  flora  of  the  two  opposite  continents,  which 
seem  to  require  the  admission  of  a  primeval  bridge  of 
islands  across  Behring's  Straits.  Yet  the  evidence  has 
never  been  carefully  sifted  and  properly  summed  up, 
and  till  that  is  done  a  verdict  cannot  be  given.  As  a 
contribution,  apparently  small,  yet  by  no  means  insig- 
nificant, towards  a  solution  of  this  important  problem, 
we  shall  mention  only  one  of  Mr.  Tylor's  observations. 
Joannes  de  Piano  Carpini,  describing  in  1246  the  man- 
ners and  customs  of  the  Tartars,  says  that  one  of  their 
superstitious  traditions  concerns  sticking  a  knife  into 
the  fire,  or  in  any  way  touching  the  fire  with  a  knife, 
or  even  taking  meat  out  of  a  kettle  with  a  knife,  or 
cutting  near  the  fire  with  an  axe,  for  ihey  believe  that 
so  the  head  of  the  fire  would  be  cut  off.  In  the  far 
northeast  of  Asia,  it  may  be  found,  in  the  remarkable 
catalogue  of  ceremonial  sins  of  the  Kamchadals,  among 


ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  271 

whom  it  is  a  sin  to  take  up  a  burning  ember  with_the. 
knife^pintj  and  light  tobacco;   but  it  must  be  taken!  ^ 
hold  of  with  the  bare  hands.    How  is  it  possible  to  sep-  1 
arate  from  these  the  following  statement  taken  out  of 
a  list  of  superstitions  of  the  Sioux  Indians  of  North 
America  ?     "  They  must  not  stick  an  awl  or  needle 
into    ....    a  stick  of  wood  on  the  fire.     No  person 
must  chop  on  it  with  an  axe  or  knife,  or  stick  an  awl 
into  it  ;  neither  are  they  allowed  to  take  a  coal  from 
the  fire  with  a  knife,  or  any  other  sharp  instrument." 
These,  no  doubt,  are  striking  coincidences  ;  but  do 
they  not  at  once  lose  much  of  their  force  by  the  fact,  . 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Tylor  himself,  that  among  the  an-  ) 
cient  Pythagorean  maxims  we  find,  Trvp  ^a^aipa.  /AT?  o-Ka-  /  Y 


"  not  to  stir  the  fire  with  a  sword." 
Mr.  Tylor  seems  almost  to  despair  of  the  existence 
of  any  custom  anywhere  which  cannot  be  matched 
somewhere  else.  "  Indeed,"  he  says  (p.  175),  "  any 
one  who  claims  a  particular  place  as  the  source  of 
even  the  smallest  art,  from  the  mere  fact  of  finding  it 
there,  must  feel  that  he  may  be  using  his  own  ignoi 
ance  as  evidence,  as  though  it  were  knowledge.  An 
ingenious  little  drilling  instrument  which  I  and  other 
observers  had  set  down  as  peculiar  to  the  South  Sea 
Islanders,  in  or  near  the  Samoan  group,  I  found  kept 
one  day  in  stock  in  the  London  tool-shops." 

It  is  impossible  to  be  too  cautious  in  a  comparative 
study  of  manners  before  admitting  an  historical  con-S 
nection    on   the  strength  of  ethological  coincidences,!    J- 
however   startling.      Let   those  who   are   inclined   to 
blame   Mr.   Tylor  for   not   having    dogmatized   more 
broadly  on  these  problems,  consider  but  one  case,  that 
of  the  Couvade,  so  well  described  in  his  book.     Who 


272  ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

could  believe  that  there  was  one  single  tribe,  however 
silly  in  other  respects,  which  should  carry  its  silliness 
so  far  as  to  demand  that  on  the  birth  of  a  child  the 
father  should  take  to  his  bed,  while  the  mother  attends 
to  all  the  duties  of  the  household  ?  Yet  there  are  few 
customs  more  widely  spread  than  this,  and  better  at- 
tested by  historical  evidence  during  nearly  2,000  years. 
The  Chinese,  whose  usages  are  quaint  enough,  have 
long  been  credited  with  this  custom,  but,  as  it  would 
seem,  without  good  reason,  Marco  Polo,  passing 
through  China  in  the  thirteenth  century,  observed  this 
custom  in  the  Chinese  province  of  West  Yunnan,  and 
the  widow's  remark  to  Sir  Hudibras  owes  its  origin 
most  probably  to  Marco  Polo's  travels  :  — 

"  For  though  Chineses  go  to  bed, 
And  lie-in  in  their  ladies'  stead." 

The  people,  however,  among  whom  the  Venetian  trav- 
eller observed  this  custom  were  not  properly  Chinese, 
but  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  the  land.  Among  these 
tribes,  commonly  called  Miau-tze,  soil-children,  the 
custom  remarked  by  Marco  Polo  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury exists  to  the  present  day.  The  father  of  a  new- 
born child,  as  soon  as  its  mother  has  become  strong 
enough  to  leave  her  couch,  gets  into  bed  himself,  and 
there  receives  the  congratulations  of  his  acquaintances. 
But  the  custom  is  more  ancient  than  the  thirteenth 
century.  About  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era 
one  of  the  most  trustworthy  geographers,  Strabo,1 
mentions  that  among  the  Iberians  of  the  north  of  Spain 


,  III.  4,  17.  Koica  Se  «ai  Taura  jrpbs  TO.  Ke\riKa  edvri  «ai  ra  ©paxia 
KO.L  Sfcuflixa,  KOIVO.  Se  KO\  TO.  jrpbs  avSpeiav  Trjvre  Ttav  dvSpuiv  KOJ.  Tyy  riav  yvvaintav. 
yeuipyovcri  aural,  TEKoGcrtu  re  SIO.KOVOIHTL  Tens  avSpaa-u',  eKtCvovf  dv6*  eavrtav  team* 


ON   MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  273 

the  women,  after  the  birth  of  a  child,  tend  their  hus- 
bands, putting  them  to  bed,  instead  of  going  them- 
selves. In  the  same  locality,  and  among  the  modern 
Basques,  the  descendants  of  the  Iberians,  M.  F.  Michel 
found  the  same  custom  in  existence  but  a  few  years 
ago.  "  In  Biscay,"  he  says,  "  the  women  rise  immedi- 
ately after  childbirth,  and  attend  to  the  duties  of  the 
household,  while  the  husband  goes  to  bed,  taking  the 
baby  with  him,  and  thus  receives  the  neighbors'  com- 
pliments." From  the  Basques  in  the  Pyrenees  this 
absurd  custom  seems  to  have  spread  to  France,  where 
it  received  the  name  of  faire  la  couvade. 

"  It  has  been  found  in  Navarre,"  Mr.  Tylor  writes, 
"  and  on  the  French  side  of  the   Pyrenees.     Legrand  i 
d'Aussy  mentions  that  in  an  old  French  fabliau,  thei 
king  of  Torelore  is  au  lit  et  en  couche,  when  Aucassin< 
arrives  and  takes  a  stick  to  him  and  makes  him  prom-) 
ise  to  abolish  the  custom  in  his  realm.     And  the  same  ; 
author  goes  on  to  say  that  the  practice  is  said  still  to 
exist  in  some  cantons  of  Be"arn."    Nor  is  this  all.    We 
have  the  respectable  authority  of  Diodorus  Siculus  that 
among  the  natives  of  Corsica  the  wife  was  neglected 
and  the  husband  put  to  bed  and  treated  as  the  patient. 
And,  if  we  may  trust  Apollonius  Rhodius,1  the  same 

1  Apollonius,  Argonautica,  II.  1009-1014:  — 

Tous  ie  fieV  avriV  tjreira  revqraiov  Atbs  axpijv 
yi/ajuu|<a)>Tes,  auiovro  Trapef  Ti.tfapijviSa  ya.la.v- 
'Ev9"  eirei  ap  ice  TeKtavrai  \nr'  avSpaai.  reicva  yvaocw, 
avroi  fj.tv  (?T€v6.\o"<Ti.v  €v\  Ae^e'ccrai  irecroi'Tes, 
xpaara  &r)<rdnevoC  TOU  &'  ev  xo/ueo  an  i&ia&fl 
ac epa?,  ^8«  Xocrpa  i«x''''a  Town,  wevovriu. 

See  also  Valerius  Flficcus,  Aryan.  V.  148:  — 

"  Inde  Genetset  rupem  Jovis,  hinc  Tibarenflm 
Dant  virides  post  terga  lacus,  ubi  deside  n-.itra 
Feta  ligat,  partuque  virum  fovet  ipsa  soluto  " 
VOL.  n.  18 


274  ON   MAXXKKS   AND    CUSTOMS. 

almost  incredible  custom  prevailed  at  the  south  of  the 
Black  Sea,  among  a  people  called  Tibareni,  where, 
when  the  child  was  born,  the  father  lay  groaning  in 
bed  with  his  head  tied  up,  while  the  mother  tended 
him  with  food  and  prepared  his  baths. 

Thus,  a  custom  which  ought  to  be  peculiar  to  Bed- 
/  lam  has  been  traced  during  more  than  1,800  years  in 
the  most  distant  parts  of  the  world  —  in  Western 
China,  near  the  Black  Sea,  in  Corsica,  in  Spain,  and 
among  tribes  who,  as  far  as  we  know,  had  no  historical 
intercourse  with  each  other,  and  whose  languages  cer- 
tainly show  no  traces  of  relationship.  Is  it,  then,  a  nat- 
ural custom  ?  Is  there  anything  rational  or  intelligible 
in  it  to  which  there  might  be  some  response  from  every 
human  heart  ?  Mr.  Tylor  thinks  that  he  has  discov- 
ered such  an  element.  "  The  Couvade,"  he  says, 
"  implicitly  denies  that  physical  separation  of  individ- 
uals which  a  civilized  man  would  probably  set  down  as 
a  first  principle.  It  shows  us  a  number  of  distinct  and 
distant  tribes  deliberately  holding  the  opinion  that  the 
connection  between  father  and  child  is  not  only,  as  we 
think,  a  mere  relation  of  parentage,  affection,  and 
duty,  but  that  their  very  bodies  are  joined  by  a  phys- 
ical bond ;  so  that  what  is  done  to  the  one  acts  directly 
upon  the  other !  "  Mr.  Tylor  fixes  on  what  he  calls  a 
"  fusion  of  objective  and  subjective  relations  in  the 
mind "  as  the  source  of  this  and  other  superstitions ; 
and  though  allowing  that  it  is  difficult  to  place  ourselves 
at  the  same  angle  of  thought,  he  traces  the  effects  of 
a  similar  confusion  in  many  of  the  customs  and  cere- 
monies of  earlier  ages. 

Without  denying  the  existence  of  this  mental  con- 
fusion, nay,  readily  allowing  to  it  some  influence  on 


ON   MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS.  275 

the  latter  modifications  of  the  Couvade,  we  are  inclined  / 
to  take  a  different  view  of  the  origin  of  that  extraor- 
dinary custom.  Customs,  however  extraordinary,  after 
a  lapse  of  time,  have  generally  very  simple  begin-  ( 
nings.  Now,  without  exaggerating  the  treatment  j 
which  a  husband  receives  among  ourselves  at  the  time 
of  his  wife's  confinement,  not  only  from  mothers-in- 
law,  sisters-in-law,  and  other  female  relatives,  but  from 
nurses,  from  every  consequential  maid-servant  in  the 
house,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  while  his  wife  is  suffer- 
ing, his  immunity  from  pain  is  generally  remarked 
upon,  and  if  anything  goes  wrong  Tor  which  it  is  possi- 
ble to  blame  him,  he  is  sure  to  hear  of  it.  If  his  boots 
are  creaking,  if  his  dog  is  barking,  if  the  straw  has  not 
been  properly  laid  down,  does  he  not  catch  it?  And 
would  it  not  be  best  for  him  to  take  to  his  bed  at  once, 
and  not  to  get  up  till  all  is  well  over  ?  If  something 
of  this  kind  exists  in  our  highly  civilized  age,  let  us  try 
to  imao-ine  what  it  must  have  been  among  nomadic  f 

o 

races  ;  or,  rather,  let  us  hear  evidence.     Among  the 
land  Dayaks  of  Borneo  the  husband,  before  the  birth 
of  his  child,  may  do  no  work  with   a  sharp  instrument  j 
except  what  is  necessary  for  the  farm  ;  nor  may  he  fire 
guns,  nor  strike  animals,  nor  do  any  violent  work,  lest 
bad  influences  should  affect  the  child  ;  and  after  it  is 
born,  the  father  is  kept  in  seclusion  in-doors  for  several  f 
days  and  dieted  on  rice  and  salt,  to  prevent  not  his  own  f 
but  his  child's  stomach  from  swelling.     In  Kamschatka 
the  husband  must  not  do  such  things  as  bend  sledge- 
staves  across  his  knee  before  his  child  is  born.      In 
Greenland  he  must  for  some  weeks  before  his  wife's 
confinement  do  no  work  except  what  is  necessary  to 
procure  food,  and  this,  it  is  believed,  in  order  that  the 


276  ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS. 

child  may  not  die.  Among  the  Arawaks  of  Surinam 
for  some  time  after  the  birth  of  his  child  the  father 
must  fell  no  tree,  fire  no  gun,  hunt  no  large  game  ; 
he  may  stay  near  home,  shoot  little  birds  with  a  bow 
and  arrow,  and  angle  for  little  fish,  but,  his  time  hang- 
ing heavy  on  his  head,  the  most  comfortable  thing  he 
can  do  is  to  lounge  in  his  hammock. 

In  all  these  arrangements  the  original  intention  is 
very  clear.  The  husband  was  to  keep  quiet  before  as 
well  as  after  the  birth  of  his  child,  and  he  was  told 
by  the  goodies  of  the  house  that  if  he  went  out  hunt- 
ing or  came  home  drunk,  it  would  injure  the  child. 
If  the  child  happened  to  die  he  would  never  hear 
the  last  of  his  carelessness  and  want  of  consideration. 
Now,  if  this  train  of  ideas  was  once  started,  the  rest 
would  follow.  If  a  timid  and  kind-hearted  husband 
had  once  been  frightened  into  the  belief  that  it  was 
his  eating  too  much  or  his  coming  home  drunk  from 
the  Club  that  killed  the  child,  need  we  wonder  if  the 
next  time  he  tried  to  be  on  his  good  behavior,  and 
even  took  to  fasting  in  order  to  benefit  his  child,  i.  e 
in  reality,  to  save  his  servants  the  trouble  of  preparing 
dinner  for  him  ?  Other  husbands  would  then  be  told 
with  significant  looks  what  a  pattern  of  a  husband  he 
had  been,  and  how  his  children  never  died,  and  thus 
the  belief  would  soon  spread  that  if  a  child  died  it  was 
the  husband  who  killed  it  by  some  neglect  or  other. 
Fasting  before  or  after  the  birth  of  a  child  would  be- 
come meritorious,  and  would  soon  be  followed  by  other 
kinds  of  mortification  which  the  natural  spitefulness  of 
the  female  population  against  the  unfortunate  husband 
would  tend  to  multiply  and  increase  ad  infinitum. 
Now,  let  us  see  whether  in  the  peculiar  formalities  of 


ON  MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS.  277 

the  Couvade  we  can  still  discover  motives  of  this  kind, 
The  following  account  is  given  by  Du  Tertre  of  the 
Carib  Couvade  in  the  West  Indies  :  — 

"  When  a  child  is  born  the  mother  goes  presently 
to  her  work,  but  the  father  begins  to  complain  ana 
takes  to  his  hammock,  and  there  he  is  visited  as  though 

7  O 

he  were  sick,  and  undergoes  a  course  of  dieting  which 
would  cure  of  the  gout  the  most  replete  of  Frenchmen. 
How  they  can  fast  so  much,  and  not  die  of  it  (contin- 
ues the  narrator)  is  amazing  to  me.  When  the  forty 
days  are  up,  they  invite  their  relations,  who,  being 
arrived,  before  they  set  to  eating  hack  the  skin  of  this 
poor  wretch  with  agouti  teeth,  and  draw  blood  from  all 
parts  of  his  body,  in  such  sort  that  from  being  sick  by 
pure  imagination  they  often  make  a  real  patient  of  him. 
This  is,  however,  so  to  speak,  only  the  fish,  for  now 
comes  the  sauce  they  prepare  for  him  ;  they  take  sixty 
or  eighty  large  grains  of  pimento,  or  Indian  pepper, 
the  strongest  they  can  get,  and  after  well  washing  it 
in  water,  they  wash  with  this  peppeiy  infusion  the 
wounds  and  scars  of  the  poor  fellow,  who,  I  believe, 
suffers  no  less  than  if  he  were  burnt  alive  ;  however, 
he  must  not  utter  a  single  word  if  he  will  not  pass  for 
a  coward  and  a  wretch.1  This  ceremony  ended,  they 
bring  him  back  to  his  bed,  where  he  remains  some 
days  more,  and  the  rest  go  and  make  good  cheer  in  the 
house  at  his  expense.  Nor  is  this  all.  Through  the 

1  Among  the  Koriaks,  who  inhabit  the  northern  half  of  the  peninsula  of 
Kamtschatka,  the  bridegroom,  when  he  receives  his  bride,  is  beaten  with 
sticks  by  his  future  parents  and  neighbors.  If  he  endures  this  manfully, 
he  proves  his  ability  "  to  bear  up  against  the  ills  of  life,"  and  is  then  con- 
ducted without  further  ceremony  to  the  apartment  of  his  betrothed.  See  A. 
8.  Bickmore,  "The  Ainos  or  Hairy  Men,"  American  Joitrnal  of  Science, 
Miy,  1868,  p.  12. 


278  ON   MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS. 

space  of  six  whole  months  he  eats  neither  birds  njr 
fish,  firmly  believing  that  this  would  injure  the  child's 
stomach,  and  that  it  would  participate  in  the  natural 
faults  of  the  animals  on  which  its  father  had  fed ;  for 
example,  if  the  father  ate  turtle  —  poor,  alderman  !  — 
the  child  would  be  deaf  and  have  no  brains  like  this 
animal !  " 

The  Jesuit  missionary  Dobrizhofer  gives  the  follow- 
ing account  of  the  Abipones  in  South  America :  — 

"  No  sooner  do  you  hear  that  the  wife  has  borne  a 
child  than  you  will  see  the  Abipone  husband  lying  in 
bed  huddled  up  with  mats  and  skins,  lest  some  ruder 
breath  of  air  should  touch  him,  fasting,  kept  in  pri- 
vate, and  for  a  number  of  days  abstaining  religiously 
from  certain  viands  ;  you  would  aver  it  was  he  who 
had  had  the  child.  And  in  truth  they  observe  this 
ancestral  custom,  troublesome  as  it  is,  the  more  wil- 
lingly and  diligently,  from  their  being  altogether  per- 
suaded that  the  sobriety  and  quiet  of  the  father  is 
effectual  for  the  well-being  of  the  new-born  offspring, 
and  is  even  necessary.  They  believe  that  the  father's 
carelessness  influences  the  new-born  offspring,  from  a 
natural  bond  and  sympathy  of  both.  Hence  if  the 
child  comes  to  a  premature  end,  its  death  is  attributed 
by  the  women  to  the  father's  intemperance,  this  or 
that  cause  being  assigned :  he  did  not  abstain  from 
mead  ;  he  had  loaded  his  stomach  with  water-hog ;  he 
had  swam  across  the  river  when  the  air  was  chilly ; 
he  had  neglected  to  shave  off  his  long  eyebrows ;  he 
had  devoured  underground  honey,  stamping  on  the 
bees  with  his  feet ;  he  had  ridden  till  he  was  tired  and 
sweated.  With  raving  like  this  the  crowd  of  women 
5  accuse  the  father  with  impunity  of  causing  the  child's 


ON   MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS.  279 

death,  and  are  accustomed  to  pour  curses  on  the  unof-  (  ,, 
fending  husband." 

These  statements,  such  as  they  are,  given  by  un- 
prejudiced observers,   seem  to  support  very  strongly*) 
the    natural    explanation  which    we   proposed  of  the) 
Couvade.     It  is  clear  that  the  poor  husband  was  at( 
first  tyrannized^^erljyTnsfeTn^^  )     p 

warHtlrjghtened  info  ^iperstitionT  He  thenbegan  to  \ 
make  a  martyr  of  himseiT till  he  made  himself  really  / 
ill  or  took  to  his  bed  in  self-defense.  Strange  "ano^ 
absurd  as  the  Couvade  appears  at  first  sight,  there  is 
something  in  it  with  which,  we  believe,  most  mothers- 
in-law  can  sympathize  ;  and  if  we  consider  that  it  has 
been  proved  to  exist  in  Spain,  Corsica,  Pontus,  Africa, 
the  Eastern  Archipelago,  the  West  Indies,  North  and 
South  America,  we  shall  be  inclined  to  admit  that  it 
arose  from  some  secret  spring  in  human  nature,  the 
effects  of  which  may  be  modified  by  civilization,  but 
are,  perhaps,  never  entirely  obliterated.  __^ 

It  is  one  of  the  principal  charms  in  the  study  of  cus-  i 
toms  to  watch  their  growth  and  their  extraordinary  \ 
tenacity.  It  is  true  we  are  no  longer  savages  ;  we  do 
not  thrust  rings  and  bones  and  feathers  through  the 
cartilage  of  our  noses,  nor  pull  our  ears  in  long  nooses 
down  to  the  shoulders  by  heavy  weights.  Still  less  do 
we  put  wooden  plugs  as  big  as  table  spoons  through 
slits  in  the  under  lip,  or  stick  the  teeth  of  animals 
point  outwards  through  holes  in  the  cheeks.  Yet 
the  ears  of  female  children  are  still  mutilated  even  in 
Europe,  and  ladies  are  not  ashamed  to  hang  jewels  in 
them. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  wedding-ring  which  the 
wife  has  to  wear  ?     There  is  no  authority  for  it  either 


280  ON  MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS. 

in  the  Old  or  New  Testament.  It  is  simply  a  heathen 
custom,  whether  Roman  or  Teutonic  we  shall  not 
attempt  to  decide,  but  originally  expressive  of  the  fetter 
by  which  the  wife  was  tied  to  her  husband.  In  Eng- 
land it  is  the  wife  only  who  wears  the  golden  fetter, 
while  all  over  Germany  the  tie  is  mutual ;  both  hus- 
band and  wife  wearing  the  badge  of  the  loss  of  their 
liberty.  We  thought,  indeed,  we  had  discovered 
among  the  wild  tribes  in  the  interior  of  the  Malay  pen- 
insula an  independent  instance  of  the  use  of  wedding- 
rings.  But  although  every  trace  of  Christianity  seems 
extinct  among  the  Mantras,  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
from  the  description  given  by  Father  Bourien  ("  Trans- 
actions of  Ethnological  Society,"  vol.  iii.  p.  82)  that 
Christian  missionaries  had  reached  these  people,  though 
it  may  be,  before  the  time  when  they  migrated  to  their 
present  seats. 

We  should  not  venture  to  call  our  levees  and  draw- 
ing-rooms the  remnants  of  barbarism  and  savagery. 
Yet  they  must  clearly  be  traced  back  to  the  Middle 
Ages,  when  homage  was  done  by  each  subject  by  put- 
ting his  hands  joined  between  the  hands  of  the  king. 
This,  again,  was  originally  a  mere  symbol,  an  imita- 
tion of  the  act  by  which  a  vanquished  enemy  surren- 
dered himself  to  his  despoiler.  We  know  from  the 
sculptures  of  Nineveh  and  from  other  sources  that  it 
was  the  custom  of  the  conqueror  to  put  his  foot  on  the 
neck  of  his  enemy.  This,  too,  has  been  abbreviated ; 
and  as  in  Europe  gentlemen  now  only  kiss  the  king's 
,1  hand,  we  find  that  in  the  Tonga  Islands,  when  a  sub- 
'  iject  approaches  to  do  homage,  the  chief  has  to  hold  up 
his  foot  behind,  as  a  horse  does,  and  the  subject  touches 
'  the  sole  with  his  fingers,  thus  placing  himself,  as  it 


ON  MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS.  281 

were,  under  the  sole  of  his  lord's  foot.  Every  one 
seems  to  have  the  right  of  doing  reverence  in  this  way 
when  he  pleases  ;  and  chiefs  get  so  tired  of  holding  up 
their  feet  to  be  touched  that  they  make  their  escape  at 
the  very  sight  of  a  loyal  subject. 

Who  has  not  wondered  sometimes  at  the  fumbling 
efforts  of  gentlemen  in  removing  their  gloves  before 
shaking  hands  with  a  lady,  the  only  object  being,  it 
would  seem,  to  substitute  a  warm  hand  for  a  cool 
glove  ?  Yet  in  the  ages  of  chivalry  there  was  a  good 
reason  for  it.  A  knight's  glove  was  a  steel  gauntlet, 
and  a  squeeze  with  that  would  have  been  painful. 

Another   extraordinary   feature    in    the   history ' 
manners  is  the  utter  disability  of  people  to  judge  of  the 
manners  of  other  nations  or  of  former  ages  with  any- 
thing like  fairness  or  common  sense.     An  English  lac 
travelling  in  the  East  turns  away  her  face  with  disgust 
when  she  sees  oriental  women  passing  by  with  bare 
feet  and  bare  legs  ;  while  the  Eastern  ladies  are  hor- 
rified at  the  idea  of  women  in  Europe  walking  about 
barefaced.    Admirers  of  Goethe  may  get  over  the  Idea 
that  this  great  poet  certainly  ate  fish  with  a  knife ;  but 
when  we  are  told  that  Beatrice  never  used  a  fork,  and 
that  Dante  never  changed  his  linen  for  weeks,  some  of 
our   illusions   are    rudely   disturbed.      We   mourn  _in  i 
black,  and  think  that  nothing  can  be  more  natural ;  the  I  "V 
aborigines  of  Australia   mourn   in  white,    and,    their  ' 
clothing  being  of  the  scantiest,  they  plaster  their  fore- 
heads, the  tips  of  their  noses,  and  the  lower  parts  of 
the  orbit  of  their  eyes  with  pipe-clay.     As  long  as  the 
people  of  Europe  represented  the  Devil  in  human  form 
they  represented  him  in  black.     In  Africa  the  natives 
of  the  Guinea  coast  paint  him  in  the  whitest  colors. 


282  ON   MANNERS   AND   CUSTOMS. 

)To  Northern  nations  Hell  was  a  cold  pla^e,  a  dreary 
region  of  snow  and  frost;  to  Eastern  nations,  and  those 
who  derive  their  notions  from  the  East,  the  place  of 
torment  was  ablaze  with  fire  and  flame.  Who  shall 
tell  which  is  right? 

And  now,  after  we  have  gone  through  these  few 
samples,  ancient  and  modern,  of  barbarous  and  refined 
customs,  we  are  afraid  that  we  have  given  but  a  very 
incomplete  idea  of  what  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Tylor's 
book  on  the  early  history  of  mankind.  We  have  en- 
deavored to  point  out  the  importance  of  the  subject 
which  he  has  treated,  but  we  have  hardly  done  justice 
to  the  careful  yet  pleasing  manner  in  which  he  has 
treated  it.  There  are  in  the  beginning  four  chapters 
on  the  various  ways  in  which  man  utters  his  thoughts 
in  gestures,  words,  pictures,  and  writing.  Of  these  we 
have  not  been  able  to  say  anything,  though  they  con- 
tain much  that  is  new,  and  the  result  of  thoughtful  ob- 
servation. Then  there  is  a  chapter  on  images  and 
names,  where  an  attempt  is  made  to  refer  a  great  part 
of  the  beliefs  and  practices  included  under  the  general 
name  of  magic  to  one  very  simple  mental  law,  namely, 
the  taking  the  name  for  the  thing,  the  idol  for  the  deity, 
the  doll  for  the  living  child.  There  is  an  excellent 
essay  on  flints  and  celts,  in  which  it  is  shown  that  the 
transition  from  implements  of  stone  to  those  of  metal 
took  place  in  almost  every  part  of  the  globe,  and  a  prog- 
ress from  ruder  to  more  perfect  modes  of  making  fire 
and  boiling  food  is  traced  in  many  different  countries. 
Here  Mr.  Tylor  expresses  his  obligations  to  Mr.  Henry 
Christie,  whose  great  collection  of  the  productions  of 
the  lower  races  has  few  rivals  in  Europe,  and  whose 
lucid  Paper  on  the  "  Different  Periods  of  the  Stone 


ON   MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS.  283 

Age,"  lately  published,  is,  we  hope,  but  the  first  in- 
stalment of  a  larger  work.  Lastly,  there  are  several 
chapters  in  which  a  number  of  stories  are  grouped  to-  i 
gether  as  "  Myths  of  Observation,"  i.  e.  as  stories  in- 
vented  to  account,  somehow  or~other,  for  actual  facts, 
the  real  origin  of  which  was  unknown.  Every  one  of 
these  subjects  would  well  deserve  a  separate  review. 
But,  having  already  overstepped  the  proper  limits  of  a 
literary  article,  we  will  not  anticipate  any  further  the 
pleasure  of  those  who  want  to  have  an  instructive  book 
to  read  during  their  leisure  hours. 


XXVI. 
OUR  FIGURES.1 

THE  two  words  "  cipher"  and  "  zero,"  which  are  in 
reality  but  one,  would  almost  in  themselves  be  sufficient 
to  prove  that  our  figures  are  borrowed  from  the  Arabs. 
"  Cipher"  is  the  Arabic  "cifron,"  which  means  empty, 
a  translation  of  the  Sanskrit  name  of  the  nought,  "  su- 
nya."  The  same  character,  the  nought,  is  called  "  ze- 
phiro  "  in  Italian,  and  has  by  rapid  pronunciation  been 
changed  into  "zero"  —  a  form  occurring  as  early  as 
1491,  in  a  work  of  Philip  Calander  on  Arithmetic, 
published  at  Florence.  "  Cipher  "  —  originally  the 
name  of  the  tenth  of  the  numerical  figures,  the  nought 
—  became  in  most  European  languages  the  general 
term  for  all  figures,  "  zero  "  taking  its  place  as  the 
technical  name  of  the  nought ;  while  in  English  "  ci- 
pher "  retained  its  primitive  sense,  and  is  thus  used 
oven  in  common  parlance,  as,  for  instance,  "  He  is  a 
mere  cipher." 

The  Arabs,  however,  far  from  claiming  the  discov- 
ery of  the  figures  for  themselves,  unanimously  ascribe 
it  to  the  Indians ;  nor  can  there  be  much  doubt  that 
the  Brahmans  were  the  original  inventors  ot  those 
numerical  symbols  which  are  now  used  over  the  whole 

i  Memoire  stir  la  Propagation  dea  Chiff'ret  IruKens.  Par  M  F  Woepcke. 
Paris,  1863. 


OCR   FIGURES.  285 

civilized  world.  But  although  this  has  long  been  ad- 
mitted as  true,  there  is  considerable  difficulty  when  we 
come  to  trace  the  channels  through  which  the  figures 
could  have  reached,  and  did  reach  the  nations  of  Eu- 
rope. If  these  numerical  symbols  had  been  unknown 
in  Europe  before  the  invasion  of  Spain  by  the  Moham- 
medans, or  before  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism,  all 
would  be  easy  enough.  We  possess  the  work  through 
which  the  Arabs,  under  the  Khalif  Almamun,  in  the 
ninth  century,  became  initiated  into  the  science  of  In- 
dian ciphering  and  arithmetic.  This  work  of  Abu 
Jafar  Mohammed  Ben  Musa  Alkharizmi  was  founded 
on  treatises  brought  from  India  to  Bagdad  in  773,  and 
was  translated  again  into  Latin  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  with  the  title  of  "  Algoritmi  de  numero  Indo- 
rum."  It  was  generally  supposed,  therefore,  that  the 
Mohammedans  brought  the  Indian  figures  into  Spain ; 
and  that  Gerbert,  afterwards  Pope  Sylvester  II.,  who 
died  1003,  acquired  a  knowledge  of  them  at  Seville  or 
Cordova,  where  he  was  supposed  (though  wrongly)  to 
have  Jived  as  a  student.  Unfortunately,  the  figures 
used  in  the  principal  countries  of  Europe  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  and,  with  some  modifications,  to  the 
present  day,  differ  considerably  from  the  figures  used 
in  the  East;  and  while  they  differ  from  these,  they 
approach  very  near  to  the  figures  used  by  the  Arabs 
in  Africa  and  Spain.  This  is  the  first  point  that  has 
to  be  explained.  Secondly,  there  is  at  the  end  of  the 
first  book  of  the  "  Geometry  "  of  Boethius  a  passage 
•vhere,  in  describing  the  Mensa  Pyihagorea,  also  called 
the  Abacus,  Boethius  mentions  nine  figures  which  he 
ascribes  to  the  Pythagoreans  or  Neo-Pythagoreans, 
and  which,  to  judge  from  the  best  MSS.,  are  curiously 


286  OUR   FIGURES. 

like  the  figures  used  in  Africa,  Syria,  and  the  principal 
countries  of  Europe.     To  increase  the  difficulty  of  our 
problem,  this  very  important  passage  of  Boethius  is 
wanting  in  some  MSS.,  is  considered  spurious  by  sev- 
eral critics,  and  is  now  generally  ascribed  to  a  con- 
tinuator   of  Boethius,  who  drew,   however,   not  from 
Eastern,  but,  as  it  would  seem,  from   Greek  sources. 
We  have,  therefore,  in  MSS.  of  the  eleventh  century, 
figures  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  used,  if  not 
by  Boethius  himself,  at  least  by  his  continuators  and 
successors  in  the  sixth  and  following  centuries  —  figures 
strikingly  like  those  used  by  the  Arabs  in  Africa  and 
Spain,  and  yet  not  to  be  traced  directly  to  an  oriental 
source,  but  to  the  school  of  the  Neo-Pythagoreans. 
The  Neo-Pythagoreans,  however,  need  not  therefore 
be  the  inventors  of  these  figures,  any  more  than  the 
Arabs.     All  that  can  be  claimed  for  them  is,  that  they 
were  the  first  teachers  of  ciphering  among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  ;  that  they,  at  Alexandria  or  in  Syria,  be- 
came acquainted  with  the  Indian  figures,  and  adapted 
them  to  the  Pythagorean  Abacus  ;  that  Boethius,  or 
his  continuator,  made  these  figures  generally  known 
in  Europe  by  means  of  mathematical  hand-books  ;  and 
that  thus,  long  before  the  time  of  Gerbert,  who  proba- 
bly never  went  to  Spain,  and  long  before  the  influence 
of  the  Arabs  could  be  felt  in  the  literature  of  Europe, 
these  same  figures  had  found  their  way  from  Alexan- 
dria into  our  schools  and  monasteries.     The  names  by 
which  these  nine   figures  are   called  in   some  of  the 
MSS.  of  Boethius,  though  extremely  obscure,  are  sup- 
posed to  show  traces  of  that  mingling  of  Semitic  and 
Pythagorean  ideas  which  could  well  be  accounted  far 
in  the  schools  of  Alexandria. 


OUR  FIGURES.  287 

Yet  all  these  considerations  do  not  help  us  in  tracing 
with  any  certainty  the  first  appearance  in  Europe  of 
our  own  figures  beyond  the  eleventh  century.  The 
MSS.  of  Boethius,  which  contain  the  earliest  traces  of 
them,  belong  to  the  eleventh  century;  and,  strictly 
speaking,  they  cannot  be  made  to  prove  that  such 
figures  as  we  there  see  existed  in  the  time  of  Boe'thius, 
i.  e.  the  sixth  century,  still  less  that  they  were  known 
to  the  Neo-Pythagorean  philosophers.  All  that  can  be 
conceded  is  that  Boe'thius,  or  rather  his  continuator, 
knew  of  nine  figures ;  but  that  they  had  in  his  time 
the  same  form  which  we  find  in  the  MSS.  of  the 
eleventh  century,  is  not  proven. 

It  is  at  this  stage  that  M.  Woepcke,  an  excellent 
Arabic  scholar  and  mathematician,  takes  up  the  prob- 
lem in  his  "  Me"moire  sur  la  Propagation  des  Chiffres 
Indiens,"  just  published  in  the  "  Journal  Asiatique." 
He  points  out,  first  of  all,  a  fact  which  had  been  neg- 
lected by  all  previous  writers,  namely,  that  the  Arabs 
have  two  sets  of  figures,  one  used  chiefly  in  the  East, 
which  he  therefore  calls  the  "  Oriental ; "  another 
used  in  Africa  and  Spain,  and  there  called  "  Gobar." 
"  Gobar  "  means  "  dust,"  and  these  figures  were  so 
called  because,  as  the  Arabs  say,  they  were  first  intro- 
duced by  an  Indian  who  used  a  table  covered  with  fine 
dust  for  the  purpose  of  ciphering.  Both  sets  of  figures 
ire  called  Indian  by  the  Arabs.  M.  Woepcke  then 
proceeds  to  show  that  the  figures  given  in  the  MSS. 
of  Boe'thius  coincide  with  the  earliest  forms  of  the 
Gobar  figures,  whilst  they  differ  from  the  Oriental 
figures ;  and,  adopting  the  view  of  Prinsep l  that  the 
Indian  figures  were  originally  the  initial  letters  of  the 

l  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  April,  1838. 


288  OUE  FIGURES. 

Sanskrit  numerals,  he  exhibits  in  a  tuble  the  similarity 
between  the  Gobar  figures  and  the  initial  letters  of  the 
Sanskrit  numerals,  giving  these  letters  from  Indian 
inscriptions  of  the  second  century  of  our  era.  Hereby 
an  important  advance  is  made,  for,  as  the  Sanskrit  al- 
phabet changes  from  century  to  century,  M.  Woepeke 
argues  very  plausibly,  though,  we  must  add,  not  quite 
convincingly,  that  the  apices  given  in  Boethius,  and 
ascribed  by  him  to  the  Neo-Pythagoreans,  could  not 
have  been  derived  from  India  much  after  the  third  or 
fourth  centuries.  He  points  out  that  these  nine  figures 
were  of  less  importance  to  the  Greeks,  who  used  their 
tetters  with  numerical  values,  and  who  had  in  the 
Abacus  something  approaching  to  a  decimal  system  ; 
but  that  they  would  have  been  of  the  greatest  value  to 
the  Romans  as  replacing  their  V,  X,  L,  C,  D,  M.  In 
Italy,  therefore,  and  in  the  Roman  provinces,  in  Gaul 
and  Spain,  the  Indian  figures,  which  were  adopted  by 
the  Neo-Pythagoreans,  and  which  resemble  the  Gobar 
figures,  began  to  spread  from  the  sixth  century,  so  that 
the  Mohammedans,  when  arriving  in  Spain  in  the 
eighth,  found  these  figures  there  already  established. 
The  Arabs  themselves,  when  starting  on  their  career 
of  conquest,  were  hardly  able  to  read  or  to  write  ;  they 
certainly  were  ignorant  of  ciphering,  and  could  not 
therefore  be  considered  as  the  original  propagators  of 
the  so-called  Arabic  figures.  The  Khalif  Walid,  who 
reigned  at  Damascus  from  705  to  715  A.  D.,  prohibited 
the  use  of  Greek  in  public  documents,  but  was  obliged 
to  make  an  exemption  in  favor  of  Greek  figures,  be- 
cause it  was  impossible  to  write  them  in  Arabic.  In 
Egypt,  the  Arabs  adopted  the  Coptic  figures.  .In  773 
an  Indian  embassy  arrived  at  Bagdad,  at  the  court  of 


OUR   FIGURES.  289 

t  ie  Khalif  Almansur,  bringing  among  other  things  a 
set  of  astronomical  tables.  In  order  to  explain  tnese 
tables,  the  ambassadors  had  naturally  to  begin  with 
explaining  their  figures,  their  arithmetic,  and  algebra. 
Anyhow,  the  astronomical  work,  the  Siddhanta  of 
Brahrnagupta,  which  that  astronomer  had  composed  in 
628  A.  D.,1  at  the  court  of  king  Vyaghra,  was  then  and 
there  translated  into  Arabic  by  Mohammed  Ben  Ibra- 
him Alfazari,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Great  Sindhind." 
This  work  was  abridged  in  the  first  half  of  the  ninth 
century  by  a  contemporary  of  the  Khalif  Almamun, 
Mohammed  Ben  Musa  Alkharizmi,  the  same  who  after- 
wards wrote  a  manual  of  practical  arithmetic,  founded 
likewise  on  an  Indian  original  (Woepcke,  p.  58).  We 
can  well  understand,  therefore,  that  the  Arabs,  on 
arriving  in  Spain,  without,  as  yet,  any  considerable 
knowledge  of  arithmetic,  should  have  adopted  there, 
as  they  did  in  Greece  and  Egypt,  the  figures  which 
they  found  in  use,  and  which  had  travelled  there  from 
the  Neo-Pythagorean  schools  of  Egypt,  and  originally 
from  India  ;  and  likewise  that  when,  in  the  ninth  or 
tenth  century,  the  new  Arabic  treatises  on  arithmetic 
arrived  in  Spain  from  the  East,  the  Arabs  of  Spain 
should  have  adopted  the  more  perfect  system  of  cipher- 
ing, carried  on  without  the  Abacus,  and  rendering,  in 
fact,  the  columns  of  the  Abacus  unnecessary  by  the 
judicious  employment  of  the  nought.  But  while  drop- 
ping the  Abacus,  there  was  no  necessity  for  their  dis- 
continuing or  changing  the  figures  to  which  the  Arabs 
as  well  as  the  Spaniards  had  then  been  accustomed  for 
centuries ;  and  hence  we  find  that  the  ancient  figures 

i  Dr.  Bhao  Daji,  "  On  the  Age  of  Arrabhafta,"  etc.,  in  the  Journal  of 

the  Rjyal  Asiatic  Society,  1865,  p.  410. 

VOL.  II.  19 


290  OUR  FIGURES. 

were  retained  in  Spain,  only  adapted  to  the  purposes 
of  the  new  Indian  arithmetic  by  the  more  general  use 
of  the  nought.  The  nought  was  known  in  the  Neo- 
Pythagorean  schools,  but  with  the  columns  of  the 
Abacus  it  was  superfluous,  while,  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  ciphering  in  fine  powder,  and  without  columns, 
its  use  naturally  became  very  extensive.  As  the  sys- 
tem of  ciphering  in  fine  powder  was  called  "  Indian," 
the  Gobar  figures,  too,  were  frequently  spoken  of  un- 
der the  same  name,  and  thus  the  Arabs  in  Spain 
brought  themselves  to  believe  that  they  had  received 
both  their  new  arithmetic  and  their  figures  from  In- 
dia ;  the  truth  being,  according  to  M.  Woepcke,  that 
they  had  received  their  arithmetic  from  India  directly, 
while  their  figures  had  come  to  them  indirectly  from 
India  through  the  mediation  of  the  Neo- Pythagorean 
schools. 

M.  Woepcke  would  therefore  admit  two  channels 
through  which  the  Indian  figures  reached  Europe  — 
one  passing  through  Egypt  about  the  third  century 
of  our  era,  when  not  only  commercial  but  also  philo- 
sophical interests  attracted  the  merchants  of  U^ayini 
('O^ITJ)  towards  Alexandria,  and  thinkers  such  as 
Plotinus  and  Numenius  toward  Persia  and  India  ;  an- 
other passing  through  Bagdad  in  the  eighth  century, 
and  following  the  track  of  the  victorious  Islam.  The 
first  carried  the  earlier  forms  of  the  Indian  figures  from 
Alexandria  to  Rome  and  as  far  as  Spain,  and,  consid- 
ering the  active  social,  political,  and  commercial  inter- 
course between  Egypt,  as  a  Roman  province,  and  the 
rest  of  the  Roman  Empire,  we  must  not  look  upon 
one  philosophical  school,  the  Neo-Pythagorean,  as  the 
only  agent?  in  disseminating  so  useful  an  invention. 


OUK  FIGURES.  291 

ilie  merchant  may  have  been  a  more  active  agent  than 
the  philosopher  or  the  schoolmaster.  The  second  car- 
ried the  later  forms  from  Bagdad  to  the  principal  coun- 
tries conquered  by  the  Khalifs,  with  the  exception  of 
those  where  the  earlier  or  Gobar  figures  had  already 
taken  firm  root.  M.  W.oepcke  looks  on  onr  European 
figures  as  modifications  of  the  early  Neo- Pythagorean 
or  Gobar  forms,  and  he  admits  their  presence  in  Europe 
long  before  the  science  and  literature  of  the  Arabs  in 
Spain  could  have  reacted  on  our  seats  of  classical 
learning.  He  does  not  pronounce  himself  distinctly 
on  the  date  and  the  authorship  to  be  assigned  to  the 
much  controverted  passage  of  Boethius,  but  he  is  evi- 
dently inclined  to  ascribe,  with  Boeckh,  a  knoAvledge  of 
the  nine  Indian  figures  to  the  Western  mathematicians 
of  the  sixth  century.  The  only  change  produced  in 
the  ciphering  of  Europe  by  the  Arabs  was,  according 
to  him,  the  suppression  of  the  Abacus,  and  the  more 
extended  use  of  the  cipher.  He  thinks  that  our  own 
figures  are  still  the  Gobar  figures,  written  in  a  more 
cursive  manner  by  the  Arabs  of  Spain  ;  and  that  Ad- 
elard  of  Bath,  Robert  of  Reading,  William  Shelley, 
David  Morley,  Gerard  of  Cremona,  and  others  who, 
in  the  twelfth  century,  went  to  Spain  to  study  Arabic 
and  mathematics,  learnt  there  the  same  figures,  only 
written  more  cursively,  which  Boethius  or  his  continu- 
ator  taught  in  Italy  in  the  sixth.  In  MSS.  of  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries  the  figures  vaiy  con- 
siderably in  different  parts  of  Europe,  but  they  are  at 
last  fixed  and  rendered  uniform  by  the  introduction 
of  printing. 

It  will  be  admitted  by  everybody  who  has  taken  an 
..jiterest  in  the  complicated  problem  of  the  origin  and 
the  migrations  of  our  figures,  that  the  system  proposed 


292  OUR   FIGURES. 

by  M.  Woepcke  would  remove  many  difficulties.  It  is 
quite  clear  that  our  figures  could  not  have  come  to  us 
from  the  Arabs  of  Bagdad,  and  that  they  are  the  same 
as  *hose  of  the  Arabs  of  Spain.  But  it  might  still  be 
questioned  whether  it  is  necessary  to  admit  that  the 
Arabs  found  the  Gobar  figures  on  their  arrival  in  Spain 
established  in  that  country.  Is  there  really  any  evi- 
dence of  these  Gobar  figures  being  in  common  use  any- 
where in  the  West  of  Europe  before  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury ?  Could  not  the  Gobar  figures  represent  one  of 
the  many  local  varieties  of  the  Indian  figures  of  which 
Albiruni  speaks  in  the  eleventh  century,  nay,  which 
existed  in  India  from  the  earliest  to  the  present  time  ? 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Gobar  figures  are 
not  entirely  unknown  among  the  Eastern  Arabs,  and 
there  are  traces  of  them  in  MSS.  as  early  as  the  mid- 
dle of  the  tenth  century  (p.  150).  How  could  this  be 
explained,  if  the  Arabs  became  acquainted  with  the 
Gobar  figures  only  after  their  arrival  in  Spain  ?  Could 
not  the  mathematicians  of  the  Meghrab  have  adopted 
one  kind  of  Indian  figures,  the  Gobar,  and  brought 
them  to  Spain,  just  as  they  brought  their  own  peculiar 
system  of  numerical  letters,  differing  slightly,  yet 
characteristically,  from  the  numerical  alphabet  of  the 
Eastern  Mohammedans  ?  Once  in  Spain,  these  Gobar 
figures  would  naturally  find  their  way  into  the  rest  of 
Europe,  superseding  the  Eastern  figures  which  hail 
been  adopted  in  the  mathematical  works  of  Neophytus, 
Planudes,  and  other  Byzantine  writers  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  There  is,  no  doubt,  that  passage  of 
Boethius,  or  of  his  continuator.  But  to  a  skeptical 
mind  that  passage  can  carry  no  conviction.  We  do 
not  know  who  wrote  it,  and,  strictly  speaking,  the 
6gures  which  it  contains  can  only  prove  that  the  writer 


OUR   FIGURES.  293 

of  the  MS.  in  the  eleventh  century  was  acquainted 
with  the  Gobar  figures,  which  at  that  time  were 
known,  according  to  M.  Woepcke's  own  showing,  both 
at  Shiraz  and  at  Toledo.  But  though  M.  Woepcke 
has  not  driven  away  all  our  doubts,  he  has  certainly 
contributed  greatly  to  a  final  settlement  of  this  prob- 
lem, and  he  has  brought  together  evidence  which 
none  but  a  first  rate  Arabic  scholar  and  mathematician 
could  have  mastered.  M.  Woepcke,  before  grappling 
with  this  difficult  subject,  has  even  taken  the  trouble  to 
familiarize  himself  with  Sanskrit,  and  he  has  given,  in 
his  Essay,  some  valuable  remarks  about  the  enormous 
numbers  used  by  the  Buddhists  in  their  sacred  writ- 
ings. Whether  these  enormous  numbers  necessitate 

O 

the  admission  that  the  nine  figures  and  the  use  of  the 
cipher  were  known  to  the  Buddhists  in  the  third  cen- 
tury B.  c.  is  again  a  more  doubtful  point,  particularly 
if  we  consider  that  the  numbers  contained  in  the  Bac- 
tro-Pali  inscriptions,  in  the  first  or  second  century  H.  c., 
show  no  trace,  as  yet,  of  that  perfect  system  of  cipher- 
ing. They  either  represent  the  numerals  by  a  corre- 
sponding number  of  upright  strokes,  which  is  done  up 
to  five  in  the  Kapurdi-giri  inscription,  or  they  adopt  a 
special  symbol  for  four  —  namely,  a  cross  —  and  then 
express  five  by  a  cross  and  one  stroke,  eight  by  two 
crosses,1  and  ten,  twenty,  and  a  hundred  by  other 
special  symbols.  Thus  seventy-eight  is  written  in  the 
Taxila  inscription  by  three  twenties,  one  ten,  and  two 
fours.  This  is  a  late  discovery  due  to  the  ingenious 

1  It  would  be  very  desirable  if  the  origin  of  the  numerical  figures  in  the 
Hieratic  inscriptions  could  be  satisfactorily  explained.  If  the  Hieratic 
figures  for  one,  two,  and  three  are  mere  corruptions  of  the  hieroglyphic 
signs,  the  similarity  between  them  and  the  Indian  figures  would  certainly  be 
Btartling.  Writing  the  eight  by  two  fours  is  likewise  a  strange  coincident 
between  the  Hieratic  and  the  Indian  system,  and  the  figures  for  nine  art 
almost  identical  in  both. 


294  OUR  FIGURES. 

researches  of  Professor  Dowson,  Mr.  Norris,  and  Gen- 
eral A.  Cunningham,  as  published  in  the  last  numbers 
of  the  "  Journals  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,"  and 
of  the  "Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal."  We  also  beg  to 
call  attention  to  a  list  of  ancient  Sanskrit  numerals  col- 
lected by  Dr.  Bhao  Daji,  and  published  in  the  last 
number  of  the  "  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of 
Bengal."  They  are  of  a  totally  different  character, 
and  place  the  theory  of  Prinsep,  that  the  Indian  figures 
were  originally  the  initial  letters  of  the  numerals  in 
Sanskrit,  beyond  all  doubt.  Yet  here  too,  we  see  no 
trace,  as  yet,  of  decimal  notation,  or  of  the  employ- 
ment of  the  cipher.  We  find  nine  letters,  the  initials 
of  the  Sanskrit  numerals,  employed  for  1  to  9  —  a  pro- 
ceeding possible  in  Sanskrit,  where  every  numeral  be- 
gins with  a  different  letter ;  but  impossible  in  Greek, 
where  four  of  the  simple  numerals  began  with  e,  and 
two  with  t.  We  then  find  a  new  symbol  for  ten,  some- 
times like  the  e?,  the  initial  letter  of  the  Sanskrit  nu- 
meral; another  for  twenty,  for  a  hundred,  and  for  a 
thousand  ;  but  these  symbols  are  placed  one  after  the 
other  to  express  compound  numerals,  very  much  like 
the  letters  of  the  Greek  alphabet,  when  employed  for 
numerical  purposes ;  they  are  never  used  with  the 
nought.  It  would  be  highly  important  to  find  out  at 
what  time  the  nought  occurs  for  the  first  time  in  Indian 
inscriptions.  That  inscription  would  deserve  to  be 
preserved  among  the  most  valuable  monuments  of  an- 
tiquity, for  from  it  would  date  in  reality  the  beginning 
of  tnie  mathematical  science,  impossible  without  the 
nought  —  nay,  the  beginning  of  all  the  exact  sciences 
to  which  we  owe  the  discoveries  of  telescopes,  steam- 
engines,  and  electric  telegraphs. 

December,  1863. 


XXVII. 
CASTE. 


WHAT  is  caste  ?  The  word  is  used  everywhere  and 
by  everybody.  We  have  heard  it  of  late  in  Parlia- 
ment, at  public  meetings,  in  churches  and  chapels.  It 
has  found  its  way  into  English,  and  into  most  of  the 
modern  languages  of  Europe.  We  hear  of  caste  not 
only  in  India,  and  in  ancient  Egypt,  and  among  the 
Persians ;  but  in  England,  in  London,  in  the  very 
drawing-rooms  of  Belgrave  Square  we  are  told  by 
moralists  and  novel  writers  that  there  is  caste.  Among 
the  causes  assigned  for  the  Sepoy  mutiny,  caste  has 
been  made  the  most  prominent.  By  one  party  it  is 
said  that  too  much,  by  another  that  too  little  regard 
was  paid  to  caste.  An  Indian  colonel  tells  us  that 
it  was  impossible  to  keep  up  military  discipline  among 
soldiers  who,  if  their  own  officers  happened  to  pass  by 
while  the  privates  were  cooking  their  dinner,  would 
throw  their  mess  into  the  fire,  because  it  had  been  de- 
filed by  the  shadow  of  a  European.  An  Indian  civil- 

l  Original  Sanskrit  Texts  on  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  the  Religion  and 
Institutions  of  India,  collected,  translated  into  English,  and  illustrated  by 
notes,  chiefly  for  the  use  of  students  and  others  in  India.  By  J.  Muir, 
Esq.,  U.  C.  L.,  late  of  the  Bengal  Civil  Sen-ice.  Part  First,  "  The  Myth- 
ical  and  Legendary  Accounts  of  Caste."  London,  1858.  Williams  & 
Norgate. 


296  CASTE. 

ian  assures  us  with  equal  confidence  that  the  Sepoys 
were  driven  mad  by  the  greased  cartridges  ;  that  they 
believed  they  were  asked  to  touch  what  was  unclean 
in  order  to  lose  their  caste,  and  that,  rather  than  lose 
their  caste,  they  would  risk  everything.  Missionaries 
have  been  preaching  against  caste  as  the  chief  obstacle 
to  conversion.  Philanthropists  have  seen  in  the  con- 
stant attacks  of  the  missionaries  upon  caste  the  chief 
obstacle  to  the  spreading  of  Christianity  among  the 
Hindus.  Among  the  Hindus  themselves  some  patriots 
have  represented  caste  as  the  cause  of  India's  humilia- 
tion and  weakness,  while  their  priests  maintain  that  the 
dominion  of  the  barbarians,  under  which  India  has 
been  groaning  for  so  many  centuries,  was  inflicted  as  a 
divine  vengeance  for  the  neglect  of  the  old  and  sacred 
distinctions  of  caste. 

Where  such  different  effects  are  attributed  to  the 
same  cause,  it  is  clear  that  different  people  must  ascribe 
very  different  meanings  to  the  same  word.  Nor  is  this 
at  all  extraordinary.  In  India  caste,  in  one  form  or 
other,  has  existed  from  the  earliest  times.  Words  may 
remain  the  same,  but  their  meaning  changes  constantly  ; 
and  what  was  meant  by  caste  in  India  a  thousand  years 
B.  c.,  in  a  simple,  healthy,  and  patriarchal  state  of  so- 
ciety, was  necessarily  something  very  different  from 
what  is  called  caste  nowadays.  M.  Guizot,  in  his 
"  History  of  Civilization,"  has  traced  the  gradual  and 
hardly  perceptible  changes  which  the  meaning  of  such 
words  as  liberty,  honor,  right,  has  undergone  in  dif- 
ferent periods  of  the  history  of  Europe.  But  the  his- 
tory of  India  is  a  longer  history  than  the  history  of 
Europe ;  and  creeds,  and  laws,  and  words,  and  tradi- 
tions had  been  growing,  and  changing,  and  decayir  g  on 


CASTE.  297 

the  borders  of  the  Sarasvati  and  the  Ganges,  before 
the  Saxons  had  reached  the  borders  of  the  Elbe  and 
their  descendants  had  settled  on  the  coast  of  Kent 
There  may  have  been  less  change  in  India  than  in 
Europe,  but  there  has  been  considerable  change  in 
India  too.  The  Brahmans  of  the  present  day  are  no 
longer  the  Brahmans  of  the  Vedas,  and  the  caste  of 
the  Sepoys  is  very  different  from  the  caste  of  the  old 
Kshatriya  warriors.  Yet  we  call  it  all  caste,  —  a  word 
not  even  Indian  in  its  origin,  but  adopted  from  the 
Portuguese,  —  and  the  Brahmans  themselves  do  very 
much  the  same.  They  use,  indeed,  different  words 
for  what  we  promiscuously  call  caste.  They  call  it 
"varna"  and  "</ati,"  and  they  would  use  "kula"  and 
"gotra,"  and  "  pravara  "  and  "Tarawa,"  in  many  cases 
where  we  promiscuously  use  the  word  "caste."  But 
on  the  whole  they  also  treat  the  question  of  caste  as  if 
caste  had  been  the  same  thing  at  all  times.  Where  it 
answers  their  purpose  they  admit,  indeed,  that  some  of 
the  old  laws  about  caste  have  become  obsolete,  and  are 
no  longer  applicable  to  a  depraved  age.  But  in  the 
same  breath  they  will  appeal  to  the  Veda  as  their  most 
ancient  and  most  sacred  authority  in  order  to  substan- 
tiate their  claim  to  a  privilege  which  their  forefathers 
enjoyed  some  thousand  years  ago.  It  is  much  the 
same  as  if  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  were  to  de- 
vlare  the  ninth  commandment,  "Thou  shalt  not  bear 
false  witness  against  thy  neighbor,"  was  antiquated, 
because  it  had  never  been  reenacted  since  the  time  of 
Moses  ;  and  were  to  claim  at  the  same  time  the  right  of 
excommunicating  the  Queen,  or  flogging  the  nobility, 
because,  according  to  the  most  ancient  testimonies  of 


298  CASTE. 

Caesar  and  Tacitus,  the  Druids  and  the  ancient  priests 
of  Germany  enjoyed  the  same  privilege. 

The  question  of  caste  in  India  has,  however,  as- 
sumed too  serious  an  aspect  to  be  treated  any  longer  in 
this  vague  manner.  New  measures  will  soon  have  to 
be  adopted  with  regard  to  it,  and  these  measures  must 
be  such  as  will  be  approved  by  the  more  enlightened 
among  the  natives.  Whatever  the  truth  may  be  about 
the  diabolical  atrocities  which  are  said  to  have  been 
committed  against  women  and  children,  a  grievous 
wrong  has  been  done  to  the  people  of  India  by  making 
them  responsible  for  crimes  committed  or  said  to  have 
been  committed  by  a  few  escaped  convicts  and  raving 
fanatics ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  now  making  to 
counteract  the  promiscuous  hatred  against  Hindus  and 
Mohammedans,  it  will  be  long  before  the  impression 
once  created  can  be  effaced,  and  before  the  inhabitants 
of  India  are  treated  again  as  men,  and  not  as  monsters. 
It  is  now  perceived  that  it  will  never  answer  to  keep 
India  mainly  by  military  force,  and  that  the  eloquent 
but  irritating  speeches  of  Indian  reformers  must  prove 
very  expensive  to  the  tax-paying  public  of  England. 
India  can  never  be  held  or  governed  profitably  with- 
out the  good-will  of  the  natives,  and  in  any  new  meas- 
ures that  are  to  be  adopted  it  will  be  necessary  to  listen 
to  what  they  have  to  say,  and  to  reason  with  them  as 
we  should  reason  with  men  quite  capable  of  appreciating 
the  force  of  an  argument.  There  ought  to  be  no  idea 
?f  converting  the  Hindus  by  force,  or  of  doing  violence 
to  their  religious  feelings.  They  have  the  promise,  and 
that  promise,  we  know,  will  never  be  broken,  that  their 
religion  is  not  to  be  interfered  with,  except  where  it 
violates  the  laws  of  humanitv.  Hinduism  i?  a  decrepit 


CASTE.  299 

religion,  and  has  not  many  years  to  live.  But  our  im- 
patience to  see  it  annihilated  cannot  be  pleaded  as  an 
excuse  for  employing  violent  and  unfair  means  to  hasten 
its  downfall.  If,  therefore,  caste  is  part  of  the  Hindu 
religion,  it  will  have  to  be  respected  as  such  by  the 
Government.  If  it  is  not,  it  may  be  treated  in  the 
same  spirit  as  social  prejudices  are  treated  at  home. 

Now,  if  we  ask  the  Hindus  whether  their  laws  of 
caste  are  part  of  their  religion,  some  will  answer  that 
they  are,  others  that  they  are  not.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances we  must  clearly  decide  the  question  for 
ourselves.  Thanks  to  the  exertions  of  Sir  William 
Jones,  Colebrook,  Wilson,  and  others,  we  possess  in 
this  country  a  nearly  complete  collection  of  the  relig- 
ious and  legal  works  of  the  Brahmans.  We  are  able 

c> 

to  consult  the  very  authorities  to  which  the  Hindus 
appeal,  and  we  can  form  an  opinion  with  greater  im- 
partiality than  the  Brahmans  themselves. 

The  highest  authority  for  the  religion  of  the  Brah- 
mans is  the  Veda.  All  other  works,  —  the  "  Laws  of 
Manu,"  the  six  orthodox  systems  of  philosophy,  the 
Puranas,  or  the  legendary  histories  of  India,  —  all  de- 
rive their  authority  from  their  agreement  with  the 
Veda.  The  Veda  alone  is  called  /S'ruti,  or  revelation  ; 
everything  else,  however  sacred,  can  only  claim  the 
title  of  Smriti,  or  tradition.  The  most  elaborate  argu- 
ments have  been  framed  by  the  Brahmans  to  establish 
the  divine  origin  and  the  absolute  authority  of  the 
Veda.  They  maintain  that  the  Veda  existed  before 
all  time,  that  it  was  revealed  by  Brahman,  and  seen  by 
divine  sages,  who  themselves  were  free  from  the  taint 
of  humanity.  "  For  what  authority,"  the  Brahmans 
say,  "  could  we  claim  for  a  revelation  which  had  been 


300  CASTE. 

revealed  by  Brahman  to  fallible  mortals  ?  It  might  have 
been  perfect  truth  as  seen  by  Brahman,  but  as  seen  by 
men  it  would  have  been  affected  by  their  faulty  vision. 
Hence  revelation,  in  order  to  be  above  all  suspicion, 
must  be  handed  down  by  inspired  Jfishis,  till  at  last  it 
reaches  in  its  perfect  form  the  minds  of  the  common 
believers,  and  is  accepted  by  them  as  absolute  truth." 
This  is  a  curious  argument,  and  not  without  some  gen- 
eral interest.  It  is  one  of  the  many  attempts  to  alle- 
viate the  responsibility  of  the  believer  in  his  own  belief, 
to  substitute  a  faith  in  man  for  a  faith  in  God,  to  get 
something  external  to  rest  on  instead  of  trying  to  stand 
on  that  which  alone  will  last  —  a  man's  own  faith  in 
his  own  God.  It  is  the  story  of  the  tortoise  and  the 
elephant  and  the  earth  over  again,  only  in  a  different 
form  ;  and  the  Brahmans,  in  order  to  meet  all  possible 
objections,  have  actually  imagined  a  series  of  sages  — 
the  first  quite  divine,  the  second  three  fourths  divine 
and  one  fourth  human,  the  third  half  divine  and  half 
human,  the  fourth  one  fourth  divine  and  three  fourths 
human,  the  last  human  altogether.  This  Veda  then, 
as  handed  down  through  this  wonderful  chain,  is  the 
supreme  authority  of  all  orthodox  Brahmans.  To 
doubt  the  divine  origin  and  absolute  authority  of  the 
Veda  is  heresy.  Buddha,  by  denying  the  authority  of 
the  Veda,  became  a  heretic.  Kapila,  an  atheistic  phi- 
losopher of  the  purest  water,  was  tolerated  by  the 
Brahmans,  because  however  much  he  differed  from 
their  theology,  he  was  ready  to  sign  the  most  impor- 
tant article  of  their  faith  —  the  divine  origin  and  infal- 
libility of  scripture. 

At  the  present  day  there  are  but  few  Brahmans  who 
can  read  and  understand  the  Veda.     They  learn  por- 


CASTE.  301 

tions  of  it  by  heart,  these  portions  consisting  of  hymns 
nnd  prayers,  which  have  to  be  muttered  at  sacrifices; 
and  which  every  priest  must  know.  But  the  language 
and  grammar  of  the  Veda  being  somewhat  different 
from  the  common  Sanskrit,  the  young  priests  have  as 
much  difficulty  in  understanding  those  hymns  correctly 
as  we  have  in  translating  old  English.  Hence  argu- 
ments have  not  been  wanting  to  prove  that  these 
hymns  are  really  more  efficacious  if  they  are  not  un- 
derstood, and  all  that  the  young  student  is  required  to 
learn  is  the  pronunciation,  the  names  of  the  metre,  of 
the  deity  to  whom  the  hymn  is  addressed,  and  of  the 
poet  by  whom  it  was  composed.  In  order  to  show  that 
this  is  not  an  exaggerated  account  we  quote  from  an 
article  in  the  "  Calcutta  Review,"  written  by  a  native 
and  a  real  Sanskrit  scholar :  "  The  most  learned  Pan- 
dit in  Bengal,"  he  says,  "  has  need  to  talk  with  diffi- 
dence of  what  he  may  consider  to  be  the  teaching  of 
the  Vedas  on  any  point,  especially  when  negative  prop- 
ositions are  concerned.  It  may  be  doubted  whether 
a  copy  of  the  entire  Vedas  is  procurable  in  any  part  of 
Hindostan  ;  it  is  more  than  probable  that  such  a  copy 
does  not  exist  in  Bengal.  It  would  scarcely  be  modest 
or  safe,  under  such  circumstances,  to  say  that  such  and 
such  doctrines  are  not  contained  in  the  Vedas."  In 
the  South  of  India  the  Veda  is  perhaps  studied  a  little 
more  than  in  Bengal,  yet  even  there  the  Brahmans 
would  be  completely  guided  in  their  interpretation  by 
their  scholastic  commentaries ;  and  when  the  Pandits 
near  Madras  were  told  by  Dr.  Graul,  the  director  of 
the  Lutheran  Missions  in  India,  that  a  countryman  of 
his  had  been  intrusted  by  the  East  India  Company  with 
the  publication  of  the  Veda,  they  all  declared  that  it 
was  an  impossible  task. 


302  CASTE. 

Instead  of  the  Veda,  the  Brahmans  of  the  present 
day  read  the  "  Laws  of  Mann,"  the  six  systems  of 
philosophy,  the  Purawas,  and  the  Tantras.  Yet,  igno- 
rant as  they  are  of  the  Veda,  they  believe  in  it  as  im- 
plicitly as  the  Roman  Catholic  friar  believed  in  the 
Bible,  though  he  had  never  seen  it.  The  author  of  the 
so-called  "  Laws  of  Manu  "  is  but  a  man,  and  he  has 
to  produce  his  credentials  before  the  law  which  he 
teaches  can  be  acknowledged  as  an  authority.  Now, 
what  are  his  credentials,  what  is  the  authority  of  Manu  ? 
He  tells  us  himself:  "The  root  of  the  law,"  he  says, 
44  is  the  whole  Veda  and  the  tradition  and  customs  of 
those  who  knew  the  Veda."  Exactly  the  same  words, 
only  not  yet  reduced  to  a  metrical  form,  occur  in  the 
old  Sutras  or  law-books  which  were  paraphrased  by 
the  author  of  the  "  Laws  of  Manu."  Towards  the 
end  of  the  law-book  the  author  speaks  of  the  Veda  in 
still  stronger  terms  :  — 

4'  To  the  departed,  to  gods  and  to  men,  the  Veda  is 
an  imperishable  eye  ;  the  Veda  is  beyond  the  power 
and  beyond  the  reason  of  man  :  this  is  certain.  Tradi- 
tional codes  of  law,  not  founded  on  the  Veda,  and  all 
the  heterodox  theories  of  man,  produce  no  good  fruit 
after  death  ;  they  are  all  declared  to  rest  on  darkness. 
Whatever  they  are,  they  will  rise  and  perish  ;  on  ac- 
count of  their  modern  date  they  are  vain  and  false. 
The  four  classes  of  men,  the  three  worlds,  the  four 
stages  of  life,  all  that  has  been,  is,  and  will  be,  is 
known  from  the  Veda.  The  imperishable  Veda  sup- 
•  )rts  all  creatures,  and  therefore  I  think  it  is  the 
highest  means  of  salvation  for  this  creature  —  man. 
Comm&nd  of  armies,  royal  authority,  power  of  inflict- 
ing punishment,  and  sovereign  dominion  over  all  na- 


CASTE.  303 

tions,  he  only  will  deserve  who  perfectly  understands 
the  Veda.  As  fire  with  augmented  force  burns  up 
even  humid  trees,  thus  he,  who  well  knows  the  Veda, 
burns  out  the  taint  of  sin  in  his  soul  which  arose  from 
evil  works.  He  who  completely  knows  the  sense  of 
the  Veda,  while  he  remains  in  any  one  of  the  four 
stages  of  life,  approaches  the  divine  nature,  even  though 
he  sojourn  in  this  low  world." 

Again,  whatever  system  of  philosophy  we  open,  we 
invariably  find  in  the  very  beginning  that  as  for  right 
behavior  ("dharma"),  so  for  right  knowledge,  the 
Veda  is  to  be  considered  as  the  highest  authority.  In 
the  Vedanta  philosophy  the  beginning  of  all  wisdom  is 
said  to  be  a  desire  to  know  God,  who  is  the  cause  of 
the  Universe,  and  that  he  is  the  cause  of  the  Universe 
is  to  be  learnt  from  the  scripture.  The  Nyaya  philos- 
ophy acknowledges  four  sources  of  knowledge ;  and 
the  fourth,  which  follows  after  perception,  induction, 
and  analogy,  is  the  Word,  or  the  Veda.  The  Vaise- 
shika  philosophy,  an  atomistic  system,  and  looked  upon 
with  no  very  favorable  eye  by  the  orthodox  Brahmans, 
is  most  emphatic  in  proclaiming  the  absolute  authority 
of  the  Veda.  And  even  the  "  Sankhya,"  the  atheistic 
"  Sankhya,"  which  maintains  that  a  personal  God  can- 
not be  proved,  conforms  so  far  as  to  admit  the  received 
doctrine  of  the  Veda  as  evidence  in  addition  to  percep- 
tion and  induction.  At  the  time  when  these  systems 
were  originally  composed,  the  Veda  was  still  studied 
and  understood ;  but  in  later  times  the  Veda  was 
superseded  by  more  modern  works,  particularly  the 
Purawas,  and  the  less  its  real  contents  were  known, 
the  more  easily  could  its  authority  be  appealed  to  by 
the  Brthmans  in  support  of  anything  they  wished  to 


304  CASTE. 

establish  as  a  divine  ordinance.  In  their  controversies 
with  the  Mohammedans,  and  in  more  recent  times  with 
the  missionaries,  the  Brahmans,  if  they  were  hard 
pressed,  invariably  fell  back  upon  the  Veda.  The 
"  Laws  of  Manu  "  and  other  law-books  were  printed 
and  translated.  Some  of  their  Purarzas,  also,  had  been 
rendered  into  English  and  French.  With  regard  to 
these,  therefore,  the  missionaries  could  ask  for  chapter 
and  verse.  But  the  Veda  was  unknown  to  either 
party,  and  on  the  principle  of  omne  ignotum  pro  mag- 
nifieo,  the  Brahmans  maintained  and  the  missionaries 
had  to  believe  that  everything  which  was  to  be  found 
nowhere  else  was  to  be  found  in  the  Veda.  There  was 
no  commandment  of  the  Old  Testament  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  Brahmans,  might  not  be  matched  in  the 
Veda.  There  was  no  doctrine  of  Christianity  which 
had  not  been  anticipated  in  the  Veda.  If  the  mission- 
aries were  incredulous  and  called  for  the  manuscripts, 
they  were  told  that  so  sacred  a  book  could  not  be  ex- 
posed to  'the  profane  looks  of  unbelievers,  and  there 
was  an  end  to  all  further  argument. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  was  felt  that  nothing 
would  be  of  greater  assistance  to  the  missionaries  in 
India  than  an  edition  of  the  Veda.  Prizes  were  offered 
to  any  Sanskrit  scholar  who  would  undertake  to  edit 
the  work,  but  after  the  first  book,  published  by  the  late 
Dr.  Rosen  in  1838,  no  further  progress  was  made. 
The  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company,  always 
ready  to  assist  the  missionaries  by  any  legitimate 
means,  invited  the  Pandits,  through  the  Asiatic  Society 
at  Calcutta,  to  undertake  the  work,  and  to  publish  a 
complete  and  authentic  edition  of  their  own  sacred 
writings.  The  answers  received  only  proved  what  was 


CASTE  305 

known  before,  that  in  the  whole  of  Bengal  there  was 
not  a  single  Brahman  who  could  edit  the  Veda.  In 
spite  of  all  these  obstacles,  however,  the  Veda  is  now 
being  published  in  this  country  under  the  patronage 
of  the  East  India  Company.  The  missionaries  have 
already  derived  great  assistance  from  this  edition  of 
the  Veda  and  its  commentary,  and  constant  applica- 
tions are  being  made  by  various  missionary  societies  for 
copies  of  the  original  and  its  English  translation.  The 
Brahmans,  though  they  did  not  approve  the  publica- 
tion of  their  sacred  writings  by  a  Mle&Ma,  have  been 
honest  enough  to  admit  that  the  edition  is  complete  and 
authentic.  One  of  their  most  learned  representatives, 
when  speaking  of  this  edition,  says,  "  It  will  furnish 
the  Vaidic  Pandits  with  a  complete  collection  of  the 
Holy  Sanhitas,  only  detached  portions  of  which  are  to 
be  found  in  the  possession  of  a  few  of  them."  And 
again,  "  It  is  surely  a  very  curious  reflection  on  the 
vicissitudes  of  human  affairs  that  the  descendants  of 
the  divine  jRishis  should  be  studying  on  the  banks  of 
the  Bhagirathi,  the  Yamun&,  and  the  Sindhu,  their 
Holy  Scriptures,  published  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames 
by  one  whom  they  regard  as  a  distant  Mle&Ma." 

If,  then,  with  all  the  documents  before  us,  we  ask 
the  question,  Does  caste,  as  we  find  it  in  Manu  and 
at  the  present  day,  form  part  of  the  most  ancient  relig- 
ious teaching  of  the  Vedas?  we  can  answer  with  a 
decided  "No."  There  is  no  authority  whatever  in 
the  hymns  of  the  Veda  for  the  complicated  system  of 
castes  ;  no  authority  for  the  offensive  privileges  claimed 
by  the  Brahmans  ;  no  authority  for  the  degraded  posi- 
tion of  the  A$udras.  There  is  no  law  to  prohibit  the 
different  classes  of  the  people  from  living  together, 

YOU  it  20 


306  CASTE. 

from  eating  and  drinking  together ;  no  law  to  prohibit 
the  marriage  of  people  belonging  to  different  castes  ; 
no  law  to  brand  the  offspring  of  such  marriages  with 
an  indelible  stigma.  All  that  is  found  in  the  Vedar  at 
least  in  the  most  ancient  portion  of  it,  the  hymns,  is  a 
verse,  in  which  it  is  said  that  the  priest,  the  warrior, 
the  husbandman,  and  the  serf,  formed  all  alike  part  of 
Brahman.  Rv.  x.  90,  6,  7  :  "  When  they  divided 
man,  how  many  did  they  make  him  ?  What  was  his 
mouth?  what  his  arms?  what  are  called  his  thighs  and 
feet  ?  The  Brahmawa  was  his  mouth,  the  Raj/anya 
was  made  his  arms,  the  Vaisya  became  his  thighs,  the 
iS'udra  was  born  from  his  feet."  European  critics  are 
able  to  show  that  even  this  verse  is  of  later  origin  than 
the  great  mass  of  the  hymns,  and  that  it  contains  mod- 
ern words,  such  as  ySfidra  and  Ragranya,  which  are  not 
found  again  in  the  other  hymns  of  the  Rig-veda.  Yet 
it  belongs  to  the  ancient  collection  of  the  Vedic  hymns, 
and  if  it  contained  anything  in  support  of  caste,  as  it 
is  now  understood,  the  Brahmans  would  be  right  in 
saying  that  caste  formed  part  of  their  religion,  and  was 
sanctioned  by  their  sacred  writings.  But,  as  the  case 
now  stands,  it  is  not  difficult  to  prove  to  the  natives 
of  India  that,  whatever  their  caste  may  be,  caste,  as 
now  understood,  is  not  a  Vedic  institution,  and  that  in 
disregarding  the  rules  of  caste,  no  command  of  the  real 
Veda  is  violated.  Caste  in  India  is  a  human  law,  a 
law  fixed  by  those  who  were  most  benefited  by  it 
themselves  It  may  be  a  venerable  custom,  but  it  has 
no  authority  in  the  hymns  of  the  Jftshis.  The  mis- 
sionaries, if  they  wish  to  gain  the  ear  and  confidence 
of  the  natives,  will  have  to  do  what  the  Reformers 
did  for  the  Christian  laity.  The  people  in  the  six- 


CASTE.  307 

teenth  century,  no  doubt,  believed  that  the  worship  of 
the  Virgin  and  the  Saints,  auricular  confession,  indul- 
gences, the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  all  rested  on  the 
authority  of  the  Bible.  They  could  not  read  the  Bible 
in  the  original,  and  they  were  bound  to  believe  what 
they  were  taught  by  the  priests.  As  our  own  Reform- 
ers pointed  out  that  all  these  were  institutions  of  later 
growth,  that  they  had  become  mischievous,  and  that  no 
divine  law  was  violated  in  disregarding  them,  it  should 
be  shown  to  the  natives  of  India  that  the  relio-ion  which 

O 

the  Brahmans  teach  is  no  longer  the  religion  of  the 
Veda,  though  the  Veda  alone  is  acknowledged  by  all 
Brahmans  as  the  only  divine  source  of  faith.  A  Hindu 
who  believes  only  in  the  Ved;v  would  be  much  nearer 
to  Christianity  than  those  who  follow  the  Pur&was  and 
the  Tantras.  From  a  European  point  of  view  there  is, 
no  doubt,  even  in  the  Veda  a  great  deal  that  is  absurd 
and  childish  ;  and  from  a  Christian  point  of  view  there 
is  but  little  that  we  can  fully  approve.  But  there  is  no 
trace  in  the  Veda  of  the  atrocities  of  /Siva  and  Kali, 
nor  of  the  licentiousness  of  Krishna,  nor  of  most  of  the 
miraculous  adventures  of  Vislmu.  We  find  in  it  no 
law  to  sanction  the  blasphemous  pretensions  of  a  priest- 
hood to  divine  honors,  or  the  degradation  of  any  human 
beino-  to  a  state  below  the  animal.  There  is  no  .text  to 

O 

countenance  laws  which  allow  the  marriage  of  children 
and  prohibit  the  remarriage  of  child-widows,  and  the 
unhallowed  rite  of  burning  the  widow  with  the  corpse 
of  her  husband  is  both  against  the  spirit  and  the  letter 
of  the  Veda.  The  great  majority  of  those  ancient 
hymns  are  mere  prayers  for  food,  health,  and  wealth  ; 
and  it  is  extraordinary  that  words  which  any  child 
might  have  uttered  should  ever  have  seemed  to  require 


308  CASTE. 

the  admission  of  a  divine  author.  Yet  there  are  pas- 
sages scattered  about  in  these  hymns  which,  apart  from 
their  interest  as  relics  of  the  earliest  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  human  mind,  are  valuable  as  expressions  of 
a  simple  faith  in  God,  and  of  a  belief  in  the  moral  gov- 
ernment of  the  world.  We  should  look  in  vain  in 
Sanskrit  works  for  hymns  like  the  following :  — 

1.  Wise    and    mighty  are   the   works   of  him   who 
stemmed   asunder   the  wide  firmaments  (heaven  and 
earth).     He  lifted  on    high   the   bright   and   glorious 
heaven  ;  he  stretched  out  apart  the  starry  sky  and  the 
earth. 

2.  Do  I  say  this  to  my  own  self?     How  can  I  get 
unto  Varuwa  ?     Will  he  accept  my  offering  without 
displeasure  ?     When    shall  I,  with  a  quiet  mind,  see 
him  propitiated? 

3.  I  ask,  O  Varmza,  wishing  to  know  this  my  sin. 
I  go  to  ask  the  wise.     The  sages  all  tell  me  the  same : 
Vanma  it  is  who  is  angry  with  thee. 

4.  Was  it  an  old  sin,  O  Varuna,  that  thou  wishest 
to  destroy  thy  friend,  who  always  praises  thee  ?     Tell 
me,  thou  unconquerable  lord,  and  I  will  quickly  turn  to 
thee  with  praise,  freed  from  sin. 

5.  Absolve  us  from  the  sins  of  our  fathers,  and  from 
those  which  we  committed  with  our  own  bodies.     Re- 
lease Vasishdia,  O  king,  like  a  thief  who  has  feasted  on 
stolen  oxen  ;  release  him  like  a  calf  from  the  rope. 

6.  It  was  not  our  own  doing,  O  Varuna,  it  was  ne- 
cessity (or  temptation),  an  intoxicating  draught,  pas- 
sion, dice,  thoughtlessness.     The  old  is  there  to  mis 
lead  the  young  ;  even  sleep  brings  unrighteousness. 

7.  Let  me  without  sin  give  satisfaction  to  the  angry 


CASTE.  309 

god,  like  a  slave  to  the  bounteous  lord.  The  lord  god 
enlightened  the  foolish ;  he,  the  wisest,  leads  his  wor- 
shipper to  wealth. 

8.  O  lord  Varuwa,  may  this  song  go  well  to  thy 
heart !  May  we  prosper  in  keeping  and  acquiring ! 
Protect  us,  O  gods,  always  with  your  blessings  ! 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  educated 
classes  in  India  are  unable  to  appreciate  the  argument 
which  rests  on  a  simple  appeal  to  what,  from  their  very 
childhood,  they  have  been  brought  up  to  consider  as 
the  highest  authority  in  matters  of  religion.  They 
have  seen  the  same  argument  used  repeatedly  by  their 
own  priests.  Whenever  discussions  about  right  and 
wrong,  about  true  and  false  doctrine,  arose,  each  party 
appealed  to  the  Veda.  Decided  heretics  only,  such  as 
the  Buddhists,  objected  to  this  line  of  argument.  Thus, 
when  the  question  was  mooted  whether  the  burning  of 
widows  was  an  essential  part  of  the  Hindu  religion, 
the  Brahmans  were  asked  to  produce  an  authority  for 
it  from  the  Veda.  They  did  so  by  garbling  a  verse, 
and  as  the  Veda  was  not  yet  published,  it  was  impossi- 
ble at  that  time  to  convict  them  of  falsih  ^tion.  They 
tried  to  do  the  same  in  defense  of  the  law  which  for- 
bids the  marriage  of  widows.  But  they  were  met  by 
another  party  of  more  enlightened  Brahmans,  who, 
with  the  support  of  the  excellent  President  of  the 
Sanskrit  College  at  Calcutta,  Eshvar  Chandra  Vidya- 
sagar,  and  several  enlightened  members  of  the  govern- 
ment, carried  the  day. 

The  following  correspondence,  which  passed  between 
an  orthodox  Brahman  and  the  editor  of  one  of  the 
most  influential  native  newspapers  at  Madras,  may 


310  CASTE. 

serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  language   used  by  native 
divines  in  arguments  of  this  kind. 

The  pious  correspondent  begins  with  a  prayer  to 
Vislwu :  — 

"  O  thou  heavenly  Boar,  Vishwu,  residing  in  Seitri- 
potti  (in  the  neighborhood  of  Madras),  which  place, 
rising  like  a  mountain,  is  brilliant  in  its  fullness,  bless 
the  inhabitants  of  the  sea-girt  Earth  by  knowledge 
which  alone  leads  to  virtue  !  " 

Then  comes  an  address  to  the  editor :  — 

"Among  the  followers  of  the  six  religions  by  which 
the  four  castes  have  been  divided,  there  are  but  few 
to  whom  sound  knowledge  and  good  conduct  have 
been  granted.  All  the  rest  have  been  robbed  of  these 
blessings  by  the  goddess  of  mischief.  They  will  not 
find  salvation  either  in  this  life  or  in  the  life  to  come. 
Now  in  order  to  benefit  those  miserable  beings,  there 
appears  every  Sunday  morning  your  excellent  paper, 
bearing  on  its  front  the  three  forms  of  /Siva,  and  rising 
like  the  sun,  the  dispeller  of  darkness.  Please  to 
vouchsafe  in  that  paper  a  small  place  to  these  lines.  It 
is  with  that  confident  hope  that  I  sharpen  my  pen  and 
begin  :  — 

"  For  some  time  I  have  harbored  great  doubts 
within  myself,  and  though  I  always  intended  to  place 
them  before  the  public  in  your  newspaper,  no  opportu- 
nity seemed  hitherto  to  offer  itself.  But  you  have  your- 
self pronounced  an  opinion  in  one  of  your  last  numbers 
about  infanticide,  and  you  remark  that  it  reveals  a 
depravation  more  depraved  than  even  the  passion  of 
lust.  This  seems  a  small  saying,  and  yet  it  is  so  full 
of  meaning  that  I  should  fain  call  it  a  drop  of  dew 
poised  on  the  top  of  a  blade  of  grass  in  which  a  mJghty 


CASTE.  311 

tree  is  fully  reflected.  It  is  true  there  is  on  earth  no 
greater  bliss  than  love.  This  is  proved  by  the  word 
of  the  poet :  '  Say,  is  the  abode  of  the  lotus-eyed  god 
sweeter  than  a  dream  on  the  shoulders  of  the  beloved  ? ' 
No  intoxication  is  so  powerful  as  the  intoxication  of 
love.  This  is  proved  by  another  verse  of  the  same 
poet:  'Not  the  palm-wine,  no,  it  is  love  which  runs 
through  the  veins,  and  enraptures  even  by  sight.'  Nay, 
more,  love  is  a  fire  beyond  all  fires.  And  this  also  is 
proved  by  a  verse  of  the  poet :  '  If  I  fly,  there  is  fire ; 
if  I  am  near  her,  there  is  refreshing  coolness.  Whence 
did  she  take  that  strange  fire  ? ' 

"  And  love  leaves  neither  the  high  nor  the  low  with- 
out temptation.  Even  the  curly-haired  $iva  could  not 
resist  the  power  of  love,  as  you  may  read  in  the  story 
of  Pandya  and  his  Fish-flag,  and  in  many  other  legends. 
Nor  are  women  less  moved  by  passion  than  men.  And 
hence  that  secret  criminal  love,  and,  from  fear  of 
shame,  the  most  awful  of  all  crimes,  infanticide  !  The 
child  is  killed,  the  mother  frequently  dies,  and  bad 
gossip  follows ;  and  her  relations  have  to  walk  about 
with  their  heads  bent  low.  Is  it  not  all  the  conse- 
quence of  that  passion  ?  And  such  things  are  going 
on  among  us,  is  it  not  so?  It  is  said,  indeed,  that  it 
is  the  fault  of  the  present  generation,  and  that  good 
women  would  never  commit  such  atrocities.  But  even 
in  the  patriarchal  ages,  which  are  called  the  virtuous 
ao-es,  there  was  much  vice,  and  it  is  owing  to  it  that  the 
present  age  is  what  it  is.  As  the  king,  so  the  subjects. 
Where  is  chastity  to  be  found  among  us  ?  It  is  the 
exception,  and  no  longer  the  rule.  And  what  is  the 
chief  cause  of  all  this  misery  ? 

"  It  is  because  people  are  married  in  their  tender  in 


812  CASTE. 

fancy.  If  the  husband  dies  before  the  child  grows  into 
a  woman,  how  much  suffering,  how  much  temptation, 
will  come  upon  her.  The  poet  says  :  '  A  woman  that 
faithfully  serves  her  husband,  even  though  she  serve 
not  the  gods,  if  she  prays,  Send  us  rain,  it  will  rain.' 
Women  who  heed  this  will  no  doubt  walk  the  path  of 
virtue.  Yet  it  is  a  sad  thought.  There  is  much  that 
is  good  and  true  and  beautiful  in  our  poet ;  people  read 
it,  but  they  do  not  act  according  to  it.  Most  men  fol- 
low another  verse  of  the  poet,  — '  I  swim  about  on  the 
wild  sea  of  love  ;  I  see  no  shore  ;  the  night  also  I  am 
tossed  about.' 

"  Alas,  my  dear  editor  !  All  this  hellish  sin  is  the 
fault  of  father  and  mother  who  do  not  prevent  it.  If, 
in  accordance  with  the  Vedas,  and  in  accordance  with 
the  sacred  codes  that  are  based  on  them,  women  were 
allowed  to  marry  again,  much  temptation  and  shame 
would  be  avoided.  But  then  the  world  calls  out, 
*  No,  no,  widow-marriage  is  against  all  our  rules ;  it  is 
low  and  vulgar.'  Forsooth,  tell  me,  are  the  four  holy 
Vedas,  which  sprang  from  the  lotus-born  god,  books  of 
lies  and  blasphemy?  If  we -are  to  believe  this,  then 
our  sacred  laws,  which  are  all  ordained  in  the  Vedas, 
are  branded  as  lies.  If  we  continue  in  this  path,  it 
will  be  like  a  shower  of  honey  running  down  from  a 
roof  of  sugar  to  the  heathen,  who  are  always  fond  of 
abusing  us.  Do  we  read  in  the  Vedas  that  a  man  only 
may  marry  two,  three,  or  four  times?  Do  we  not 
read  in  the  same  place  that  a  woman  may  marry  at 
least  twice?  Let  our  wise  masters  ponder  on  this. 
Really  we  are  shamed  by  the  lowest  castes.  They  fol- 
low the  holy  Vedas  on  this  point,  and  we  disregard 
them.  O  marvel  of  marvels  !  This  country  is  full 


CASTE.  313 

already  of  people  who  do  not  scruple  to  murder  the 
sacred  cow !  Should  murder  of  infants  be  added 
thereto,  as  though  the  murder  of  cows  was  not  yet 
enough  ?  My  dear  editor,  how  long  is  our  god  likely 
to  bear  this  ?  " 

There  is  a  good  deal  more  in  the  same  style,  which 
is  not  quite  adapted  for  publication  in  a  more  northern 
climate.  At  the  end,  the  editor  is  exhorted  not  to  fol- 
low the  example  of  other  editors,  who  are  afraid  of 
burning  their  fingers,  and  remain  silent  when  they 
ought  to  speak. 

After  some  weeks,  the  editor  published  a  reply.  He 
fully  agrees  with  the  arguments  of  his  correspondent, 
but  he  says  that  the  writer  does  not  sufficiently  appre- 
ciate the  importance  of  universal  custom.  Universal 
custom,  he  continues,  is  more  powerful  than  books, 
however  sacred.  For  books  are  read,  but  customs  are 
followed.  He  then  quotes  the  instance  of  a  learned 
Brahman,  a  great  Sanskrit  scholar.  His  daughter  had 
become  a  child-widow.  He  began  to  search  in  the 
sacred  writings  in  order  to  find  whether  the  widow  of 
a  Brahman  was  really  forbidden  to  marry  again.  He 
found  just  the  contrary,  and  was  determined  to  give 
his  daughter  in  marriage  a  second  time.  But  all  his 
relations  came  running  to  his  house,  entreating  him 
not  to  do  a  thing  so  contrary  to  all  etiquette,  and  the 
poor  father  was  obliged  to  yield. 

At  the  end,  however,  the  editor  gives  his  correspon- 
dent some  sensible  advice.  "  Call  a  great  meeting  of 
wise  men,"  he  says.  "  Place  the  matter  before  them, 
and  show  the  awful  results  of  the  present  system.  If 
some  of  them  could  be  moved,  then  they  might  be  of 
good  cheer.  A  few  should  begin  allowing  their  wid- 


314  CASTE. 

owed  children  to  marry.  Others  would  follow,  and 
the  new  custom  would  soon  become  general  etiquette." 

The  fact  is  that  even  now  the  Brahmanic  law  has  by 
no  means  gained  a  complete  ascendency,  and  in  Mal- 
abar, where  a  list  has  been  drawn  up  of  sixty-four 
offenses  tolerated  or  even  sanctioned  in  Kerala,  the 
fifty-fourth  offense  is  described  as  follows  :  "  The 
Vedas  say  that  the  widow  of  a  Brahman  may  marry 
again.  This  is  not  the  law  in  Kerala  or  elsewhere." 

We  must  be  prepared,  no  doubt,  to  find  the  Brah- 
mans  standing  up  for  their  traditional  law  as  equally 
sacred  as  the  Veda.  They  will  argue  even  against 
their  own  Veda  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  the  Church 
of  Rome  argued  against  the  Bible,  in  order  to  defend 
the  hierarchical  and  dogmatic  system  which,  though  it 
had  no  sanction  in  the  Bible,  was  said  to  be  but  a 
necessary  development  of  the  spirit  of  the  Bible.  The 
Brahmans  maintain,  first  of  all,  that  there  are  four 
Vedas,  each  consisting  of  two  portions,  the  hymns  or 
Mantras,  and  theological  tracts  or  Brahmawas.  Now, 
with  regard  to  the  hymns,  it  can  easily  be  shown  that 
there  is  but  one  genuine  collection,  the  so-called  Rig- 
veda,  or  the  Veda  of  Praise.  The  Sama-veda  is  but  a 
short  extract  from  the  Rig-veda,  containing  such  hymns 
as  had  to  be  chanted  during  the  sacrifice.  The  Ya^ur- 
veda  is  a  similar  manual  intended  for  another  class  of 
priests,  who  had  to  mutter  certain  hymns  of  the  Rig- 
veda,  together  with  invocations  and  other  sacrificial  for- 
mulas. The  fourth,  or  Atharva-veda,  is  confessedlv  of 
later  origin,  and  contains,  besides  a  large  number  of 
nymns  from  the  Rig-veda,  some  interesting  specimens 
of  incantations,  popular  rhymes,  and  mystical  odes. 
There  remains,  therefore,  the  Rig-veda  only  which  haa 
a  right  to  be  called  the  Veda. 


CASTE.  315 

As  to  the  theological  tracts  attached  to  each  Veda, 
the  Brahmans  stoutly  maintain  that  the  arguments  by 
which  they  have  established  the  divine  origin  of  the 
hymns  apply  with  equal  force  to  these  tracts.  It  is  in 
these  Brahmanas  that  they  find  most  of  the  passages 
by  which  they  support  their  priestly  pretensions  ;  and 
this  is  but  natural,  because  these  Brahmawas  were 
composed  at  a  later  time  than  the  hymns,  and  when 
the  Brahmans  were  already  enjoying  those  very  privi- 
leges which  they  wish  to  substantiate  by  a  primeval 
revelation.  But  even  if  we  granted,  for  argument's 
sake,  that  the  Brahmawas  were  as  ancient  as  the 
hymns,  the  Brahmans  would  try  in  vain  to  prove  the 
modern  system  of  caste  even  from  those  works.  Even 
there,  all  we  find  is  the  division  of  Indian  society  into 
four  classes,  —  priests,  warriors,  husbandmen,  and 
serfs.  A  great  distinction,  no  doubt,  is  made  between 
the  three  higher  castes,  the  Aryas,  and  the  fourth  class, 
the  A$iidras.  Marriages  between  Aryas  and  /Suclras  are 
disapproved  of,  but  we  can  hardly  say  that  they  are  pro- 
hibited (Vaj.  Sanhita-  23,  30)  ;  and  the  few  allusions  to 
mixed  castes  which  have  been  pointed  out,  refer  only 
to  special  professions.  The  fourth  class,  the  ^udras,  is 
spoken  of  as  a  degraded  race  whose  contact  defiles  the 
Aryan  worshipper  while  he  is  performing  his  sacrifice, 
and  they  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as  evil  spirits ;  but 
even  in  the  latest  literary  productions  of  the  Vedic 
age,  we  look  in  vain  for  the  complicated  rules  of  Manu. 

The  last  argument  which  a  Brahman  would  use 
under  these  circumstances  is  this  :  "  Though  at  present 
we  find  no  authority  in  the  Veda  for  the  traditional 
rules  about  caste,  we  are  bound  to  admit  that  such  an 
authority  did  exist  in  portions  of  the  Veda  which  have 


316  CASTE. 

been  lost;  for  Mann  and  other  ancient  lawgivers  are 
known  to  be  trustworthy  persons,  and  they  would  not 
have  sanctioned  such  laws  unless  they  had  known  some 
divine  authority  in  support  of  them.  Therefore,  unless 
it  can  be  proved  that  their  laws  are  contrary  to  the 
Veda,  we  are  bound  to  believe  that  they  are  based  on 
lost  portions  of  the  Veda.-"  However,  there  are  few 
people,  even  in  India,  who  do  not  see  through  this 
argument,  which  is  ironically  called  the  appeal  to  the 
dead  witness. 

The  Brahmans  themselves  have  made  this  admission, 
that  when  the  Veda,  the  Law-books,  and  the  Purawas 
differ,  the  Veda  is  the  supreme  authority  ;  and  that 
where  the  Purawas  differ  from  the  Law-books,  the  Pu- 
r&was  are  overruled.  According  to  this  decision  of 
Vyasa,  the  fallibility  of  the  Law-books  and  the  Purawas 
is  admitted.  They  may  be  respected  as  the  works  of 
good  and  wise  men  ;  but  what  was  ruled  by  men  may 
be  overruled  by  men.  And  even  Manu,  after  enu- 
merating the  various  sources  of  law  —  the  Veda,  the 
traditions  and  customs  of  those  who  knew  the  Veda 
and  the  practice  of  good  men, — adds  as  the  last,  man's 
own  judgment  ("  atmanas  tushlis  "),  or  the  approval 
of  conscience. 

As  the  case  now  stands,  the  government  would  be 
perfectly  justified  in  declaring  that  :t  will  no  longer 
consider  caste  as  part  of  the  religious  system  of  the 
Hindus.  Caste,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  is 
no  religious  institution ;  it  has  no  authority  in  the 
sacred  writings  of  the  Brahmans,  and  by  whatever 
promise  the  government  may  have  bound  itself  to 
respect  the  religion  of  the  natives,  that  promise  will 
not  be  violated,  even  though  penalties  were  inflicted 
for  the  observation  of  the  rules  of  caste. 


CASTE.  317 

It  is  a  different  question  whether  such  a  proceeding 
would  be  either  right  or  prudent ;  for,  although  caste 
cannot  be  called  a  religious  institution,  it  is  a  social 
institution,  based  on  the  law  of  the  country.  It  has 
been  growing  up  for  centuries,  and  the  whole  frame 
of  Hindu  society  has  been  moulded  in  it.  On  these 
grounds  the  question  of  caste  will  have  to  be  treated 
with  great  caution  :  only  it  is  right  that  the  question 
should  be  argued  on  its  real  merits,  and  that  religious 
arguments  should  not  be  dragged  in  where  they  would 
only  serve  to  make  confusion  worse  confounded.  If 
caste  is  tolerated  in  India,  it  should  be  known  on  both 
sides  that  it  is  not  tolerated  on  religious  grounds.  If 
caste  is  to  be  put  down,  it  should  be  put  down  as  a 
matter  of  policy  and  police.  How  caste  grew  up  as  a 
social  institution,  how  it  changed,  and  how  it  is  likely 
to  change  still  further,  these  are  questions  which  ought 
to  be  carefully  considered  before  any  decision  is  taken 
that  would  affect  the  present  system  of  caste. 

Mr.  Muir,  therefore,  seems  to  us  to  have  undertaken 
a  very  useful  work  at  the  present  moment  in  collecting 
and  publishing  a  number  of  extracts  from  Sanskrit 
works  bearing  on  the  origin  and  history  of  caste.  In 
his  first  part  he  treats  on  the  mythical  and  legendary 
accounts  of  caste,  and  he  tries  to  discover  in  them  the 
faint  traces  of  the  real  history  of  that  extraordinary 
institution. 

As  soon  as  we  trace  the  complicated  system  of  caste, 
such  as  we  find  it  in  India  at  the  present  day,  back  to 
its  first  beginnings,  we  find  that  it  flows  from  at  least 
three  different  sources,  and  that  accordingly  we  must 
distinguish  between  ethnological,  political,  and  profe* 
sional  caste. 


318  CASTE. 

Ethnological  caste  arises  wherever  different  races  are 
brought  in  contact.  There  is  and  always  has  been  a 
mutual  antipathy  between  the  white  and  the  black  man, 
and  when  the  two  are  brought  together,  either  by  con- 
quest or  migration,  the  white  man  has  invariably  as- 
serted his  superiority,  and  established  certain  social 
barriers  between  himself  and  his  dark-skinned  brother. 
The  Aryas  and  the  iSudras  seem  to  have  felt  this  mu- 
tual antipathy.  The  difference  of  blood  and  color 
was  heightened  in  ancient  times  by  difference  of  relig- 
ion and  language  ;  but  in  modern  times  also,  and  in 
countries  where  the  negro  has  learnt  to  speak  the 
same  language  and  to  worship  the  same  God  as  his 
master,  the  white  man  can  never  completely  overcome 
the  old  feeling  that  seems  to  lurk  in  his  very  blood,  and 
makes  him  recoil  from  the  embrace  of  his  darker  neigh- 
bor. And  even  where  there  is  no  distinction  of  color, 
an  analogous  feeling,  the  feeling  of  race,  asserts  its  in- 
fluence, as  if  inherent  in  human  nature.  Between  the 
Jew  and  the  Gentile,  the  Greek  and  the  barbarian,  the 
Saxon  and  the  Celt,  the  Englishman  and  the  foreigner, 
there  is  something — whether  we  call  it  hatred,  or 
antipathy,  or  mistrust,  or  mere  coldness  —  which  in  a 
primitive  state  of  society  would  necessarily  lead  to  a 
system  of  castes,  and  which,  even  in  more  civilized 
countries,  will  never  be  completely  eradicated. 

Political  caste  arises  from  the  struggles  of  different 
parties  in  the  same  state  for  political  supremacy.  The 
feeling  between  the  patrician  and  the  plebeian  at  Rome 
was  ft  feeling  of  caste,  and  for  a  long  time  marriage  be- 
tween the  son  of  a  plebeian  and  the  daughter  of  a  patri- 
cian was  as  distasteful  at  Rome  as  the  marriage  between 
a  /Sudra  and  the  daughter  of  a  Brahman  in  India.  In 


CASTE.  319 

addition  to  these  two  classes  of  society,  the  governing 
and  the  governed,  the  nobility  and  the  people,  we  find 
a  third  class  starting  into  existence  at  a  very  early 
period,  and  in  almost  all  countries,  the  priests  ;  and  if 
we  look  at  the  history  of  the  ancient  world,  particularly 
among  Eastern  nations,  it  chiefly  consists  in  contests 
between  the  nobility  and  the  priesthood  for  political 
supremacy.  Thus,  whereas  ethnological  caste  leads 
generally  only  to  one  broad  division  between  the  white 
and  the  black  man,  between  the  conquering  and  the 
conquered  race,  between  the  freeman  and  the  slave, 
political  caste  superadds  a  threefold  division  of  the 
superior  race,  by  separating  a  military  nobility  and 
a  priestly  hierarchy  from  the  great  body  of  the  citizens. 
Professional  caste  is  in  reality  but  a  continuation  of 
the  same  social  growth  which  leads  to  the  establishment 
of  political  caste.  After  the  two  upper  classes  have 
been  separated  from  the  main  body  of  the  people,  the 
gradual  advancement  of  society  towards  a  more  perfect 
organization  takes  place,  chiefly  by  means  of  new  sub- 
divisions among  the  middle  classes.  Various  trades 
and  professions  are  established,  and  privileges  once 
granted  to  them  are  defended  by  guilds  and  corpora- 
tions, with  the  same  jealousy  as  the  political  privileges 
of  the  nobility  and  the  priesthood.  Certain  trades  and 
professions  become  more  respectable  and  influential 
than  others,  and,  in  order  to  keep  up  that  respecta- 
bility, the  members  of  each  bind  themselves  by  regula- 
tions which  are  more  strictly  enforced  and  more  severely 
felt  than  the  laws  of  the  people  at  large.  Every  nation 
must  pass  through  this  social  phase,  which  in  Europe 
was  most  completely  realized  during  the  Middle  Ages. 
And  though,  in  later  times,  with  the  progress  of  civil- 


320  CASTE. 

ization  and  true  religion  in  Europe,  all  the  barriers  of 
caste  became  more  and  more  leveled,  the  law  being 
the  same  for  all  classes,  and  the  services  of  Church  and 
State  being  opened  to  the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  the 
whole  nation,  yet  within  smaller  spheres  the  traditional 
feeling  of  caste,  in  its  threefold  character,  lingers  on  ; 
and  the  antipathy  between  Saxon  and  Celt,  the  distinc- 
tion between  nobility  and  gentry,  the  distance  between 
the  man  who  deals  in  gold  and  silver  and  the  man  who 
deals  in  boots  and  shoes,  are  still  maintained,  and  would 
seem  almost  indispensable  to  the  healthy  growth  of 
every  society. 

The  first  trace  of  caste  which  we  find  in  India  is 
purely  ethnological.  India  was  covered  by  a  stratum 
of  Turanian  inhabitants  before  the  Aryas,  or  the  peo- 
ple who  spoke  Sanskrit,  took  possession  of  the  country. 
Traces  of  these  aboriginal  inhabitants  are  still  to  be 
found  all  over  India.  The  main  body  of  these  earlier 
settlers,  however,  was  driven  to  the  South,  and  to  the 
present  day  all  the  languages  spoken  in  the  south  of 
India,  Tamil,  Telugu,  Canarese,  etc.,  are  perfectly  dis- 
tinct from  Sanskrit  and  the  modern  Sanskrit  dialects, 
such  as  Hindustani,  Bengali,  and  Mahratti.  At  the 
time  of  the  great  Aryan  immigration  the  differences  in 
the  physical  appearance  of  the  conquered  and  the  con- 
quering races  must  have  been  considerable,  and  even 
at  present  a  careful  observer  can  easily  distinguish  the 
descendants  of  the  two.  "No  sojourner  in  India,"  Dr. 
Stevenson  remarks,  "can  have  paid  any  attention  to 
the  physiognomy  of  the  higher  and  lower  orders  of 
natives,  without  being  struck  with  the  remarkable  dif- 
ference that  exists  in  the  shape  of  the  head,  the  build 
of  the  body,  and  the  color  of  the  skin  between  the 


CASTE.  3:11 

higher  and  the  lower  castes  into  which  the  Hindu  popu- 
lation is  divided.  The  high  forehead,  the  stout  build, 
and  the  light  copper  color  of  the  Brahmans,  and  other 
castes  allied  to  them,  appear  in  strong  contrast  with 
the  somewhat  low  and  wide  heads,  slight  make,  and 
dark  bronze  of  the  low  castes."  Time,  however,  has 
worked  many  changes,  and  there  are  at  present  Brah- 
mans, particularly  in  the  South  of  India,  as  black  as 
Pariahs. 

The  hymns  of  the  Veda,  though  they  never  mention 
the  word  /Sudra,  except  in  the  passage  pointed  out 
before,  allude  frequently  to  these  hostile  races,  and 
call  them  "  Dasyus,"  or  enemies.  Thus  one  poet  says 
(Rv.  III.  34,  9)  :  — 

"  Indra  gave  horses,  Indra  gave  the  sun,  he  gave  the 
earth  with  food  for  many,  he  gave  gold,  and  he  gave 
wealth  ;  destroying  the  Dasyus,  Indra  protected  the 
Aryan  color." 

The  word  which  is  here  translated  by  color,  "  varwa," 
is  the  true  Sanskrit  name  for  caste.  Nor  can  there  be 
any  doubt  that  there  was  a  distinction  of  color  between 
the  Aryas  and  the  Dasyus,  and  that  the  name  "  varwa  " 
—  meaning  originally  color  —  was  afterwards  used  in 
the  more  general  sense  of  caste.1  Mr.  Muir  has  quoted 
a  passage  from  the  Mahabharata,  where  it  is  said  that 
the  color  of  the  Brahmans  was  white  ;  that  of  the 
Kshatriyas,  red  ;  that  of  the  Vaisyas,  yellow,  and  that 
of  the  /SKidras,  black.  But  this  seems  to  be  a  later 
allegory,  and  the  colors  seem  to  be  chosen  in  order  to 
express  the  respective  character  of  the  four  castes.  At 
the  time  when  this  name  of  "  vama  "  was  first  used  in 
the  sense  of  caste,  there  were  but  two  castes,  the  Aryas 


1  See  page  176. 
21 


822  CASTE. 

and  the  non-Aryas,  the  bright  and  the  dark  race. 
This  dark  race  is  sometimes  called  by  the  poets  of  the 
Veda  "the  black  skin."  Rig-veda  I.  130,  8:  "  Indra 
protected  in  battle  the  Aiyan  worshipper,  he  subdued 
the  lawless  for  Manu,  he  conquered  the  black  skin." 
Other  names  given  to  them  by  their  Aryan  conquerors 
are  "goat-nosed  and  noseless,"  whereas  the  Aryan  gods 
are  frequently  praised  for  their  beautiful  noses.  That 
those  people  were  considered  as  heathen  and  barbarians 
by  the  Vedic  poets  we  may  conclude  from  other  pas- 
sages where  they  are  represented  as  keeping  no  sacred 
fires  and  as  worshipping  mad  gods.  Nay,  they  are 
even  taunted  with  eating  raw  flesh,  —  as  in  the  Dek- 
ban  some  of  the  low  castes  are  called  Puliyars,  or 
Poliars,  i.  e.  flesh  eaters,  —  and  with  feeding  on 
human  flesh.  How  they  were  treated  by  the  Brah- 
mans,  we  may  conclude  from  the  following  invoca- 
tion :  — 

"  Indra  and  Soma,  burn  the  devils,  destroy  them, 
throw  them  down,  ye  two  Bulls,  the  people  that  grow 
in  darkness  !  Hew  down  the  madmen,  suffocate  them, 
kill  them  ;  hurl  them  away,  and  slay  the  voracious. 

"  Indra  and  Soma,  up  together  against  the  cursing 
demon  !  May  he  burn  and  hiss  like  an  oblation  in  the 
fire  I  Put  your  everlasting  hatred  upon  the  villain  who 
hates  the  Brahman,  who  eats  flesh,  and  whose  look  is 
abominable. 

"  Indra  and  Soma,  hurl  the  evil-doer  into  the  pit, 
even  into  unfathomable  darkness  !  May  your  strength 
be  full  of  wrath  to  hold  out,  that  no  one  may  come  out 
again  !  " 

This  ancient  division  between  Aryan  and  non-Aryan 
races,  based  on  an  original  difference  of  blood,  was 


CASTE.  323 

preserved  in  later  times  as  the  primary  dish.ietion  be- 
tween the  three  twice-born  castes  and  the  /Sudras.  The 
word  "  arya  "  (noble)  is  derived  from  "  arya,"  which 
means  a  householder,  and  was  originally  used  as  the 
name  of  the  third  caste,  or  the  Vaisyas.  These  Aryas 
or  Vaisyas  formed  the  great  bulk  of  the  Brahmanic 
society,  and  it  is  but  natural  that  their  name,  in  a 
derivative  form,  should  have  been  used  as  a  common 
name  of  the  three  classes  into  which  these  Aryas  be- 
came afterwards  divided.  How  these  three  upper 
castes  grew  up  we  can  see  very  clearly  in  the  hyrnns, 
in  the  Brahmawas,  and  in  the  legendary  stones  con- 
tained in  the  epic  poems.  The  three  occupations  of 
the  Aryas  in  India  were  fighting,  cultivating  the  soil, 
and  worshipping  the  gods.  Those  who  fought  the 
battles  of  the  people  would  naturally  acquire  influence 
and  rank,  and  their  leaders  appear  in  the  Veda  as 
Rajahs  or  kings.  Those  who  did  not  share  in  the 
fighting  would  occupy  a  more  humble  position  ;  they 
were  called  "  Vis,"  "Vaisyas,"  or  householders,  and 
would  no  doubt  have  to  contribute  towards  the  main- 
tenance of  the  armies.  "  Vispati,"  or  "  lord  of  the 
Vis,"  became  the  usual  name  for  king,  and  the  same 
word  is  found  in  the  old  Persian  "  Vispaiti,"  and  the 
modern  Lithuanian  "  wieszpatis,"  king.  But  a  third 
occupation,  that  of  worshipping  the  gods,  was  evidently 
considered  by  the  whole  nation  to  be  as  important  and 
as  truly  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  country  as 
fighting  against  enemies  or  cultivating  the  soil.  How- 
ever imperfect  and  absurd  their  notions  of  the  Deity 
may  seem  to  us,  we  must  admit  that  no  nation  was 
ever  so  anxious  to  perform  the  service  of  their  gods 
as  the  early  Hindus.  It  is  the  gods  who  conquer  the 


324  CASTE. 

enemy,  it  is  the  gods  who  vouchsafe  a  rich  harvest. 
Health  and  wealth,  children,  friends,  flocks,  and  gold, 
all  are  the  gifts  of  the  gods.  And  these  are  not  un- 
meaning phrases  with  those  early  poets.  No,  the  poet 
believes  it  ;  he  not  only  believes,  but  he  knows  it,  that 
all  good  things  come  from  above.  "  Without  thee,  O 
Varuwa!  "  the  poet  says,  "I  am  not  the  master  even 
of  a  twinkling  of  the  eye.  Do  not  deliver  us  unto 
death,  though  we  have  offended  against  thy  command- 
ment day  by  day.  Accept  our  sacrifice,  forgive  our 
offenses,  let  us  speak  together  again,  like  old  friends." 
Here  it  is  where  the  charm  of  these  old  hymns  lies. 
There  is  nothing  in  them  as  yet  about  a  revelation  to 
be  believed  in,  because  it  was  handed  down  by  sages 
three  fourths  divine  and  one  fourth  human.  They  be- 
lieve in  one  great  revelation,  and  they  require  no  one 
to  answer  for  its  truth,  and  that  revelation  is  that  God 
is  wise,  omnipotent,  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  ; 
that  he  hears  the  prayers  of  men,  and  forgives  their 
offenses.  Here  is  a  short  verse  containing  every  one 
of  these  primitive  articles  of  faith  (Rig-veda  I.  25, 
19):- 

"  Hear  this  my  calling,  O  Varuna,  and  bless  me 
now ;  I  call  upon  thee,  desirous  of  thy  help. 

"  Thou,  O  wise  God,  art  the  king  of  all,  of  heaven 
and  earth,  hear  me  on  thy  path." 

Among  a  nation  of  this  peculiar  stamp  the  priests 
were  certain  to  acquire  great  influence  at  a  very  early 
period,  and,  like  most  priests,  they  were  as  certain  to 
use  it  for  their  own  advantage,  and  to  the  ruin  of  all 
true  religious  feeling.  It  is  the  life-spring  of  all  relig- 
ion that  man  feels  the  immediate  presence  of  God,  and 
draws  near  to  God  as  a  child  to  his  father.  But  the 


CASTE.  325 

priests  maintained  that  no  one  should  approach  the 
gods  without  their  intercession,  and  that  no  sacrifices 
should  be  offered  without  their  advice.  Most  of  the 
Indo-European  nations  have  resisted  these  claims,  hut 
in  India  the  priests  were  successful,  and  in  the  Veda, 
already,  though  only  in  some  of  the  latest  hymns,  the 
position  of  the  priest,  or  the  Purohita,  is  firmly  estab- 
lished. Thus  we  read  (Rv.  IV.  50,  8)  :  — 

"  That  king  before  whom  marches  the  priest,  he 
alone  dwells  well-established  in  his  own  house  ;  to  him 
the  earth  yields  at  all  times,  to  him  the  people  bow  by 
themselves. 

"  The  king  who  gives  wealth  to  the  priest  that  im- 
plores his  protection,  he  will  conquer  unopposed  the 
treasures,  whether  of  his  enemies  or  his  friends  ;  him 
the  gods  will  protect." 

This  system  of  Purohiti,  or  priestly  government, 
had  gained  ground  in  India  before  the  first  collection 
of  the  Vedic  hymns  was  accomplished.  These  very 
hymns  were  the  chief  strength  on  which  the  priests 
relied,  and  they  were  handed  down  from  father  to  son 
as  the  most  valuable  heir-loom.  A  hymn  by  which  the 
gods  had  been  invoked  at  the  beginning  of  a  battle,  and 
which  had  secured  to  the  king  a  victory  over  his  ene- 
mies, was  considered  an  unfailing  spell,  and  it  became 
the  sacred  war-song  of  a  whole  tribe.  Thus  we  read,  — 

Rv.  VII.  33,  3.  "Did  not  Indra  preserve  Sudas 
in  the  battle  of  the  ten  kings  through  your  prayer,  O 
VasistoAas  ?  " 

Rv.  III.  53,  12.  "  This  prayer  of  Visvamitra,  of  one 
who  has  praised  heaven  and  earth  and  Indra,  preserves 
the  people  of  the  Bharatas." 

l  J.  Muir,  On  the  Relations  of  the  Priestt,  p.  4. 


326  CASTE. 

But  the  priests  only  were  allowed  to  chant  these 
songs,  they  only  were  able  to  teach  them,  and  they  im- 
pressed the  people  with  a  belief  that  the  slightest  mis- 
take in  the  words,  or  the  pronunciation  of  the  words, 
would  rouse  the  anger  of  the  gods.  Thus  they  became 
the  masters  of  all  religious  ceremonies,  the  teachers  of 
the  people,  the  ministers  of  kings.  Their  favor  was 
courted,  their  anger  dreaded,  by  a  pious  but  credulous 
race. 

The  following  hymn  will  show  that  at  an  early  time 
the  priests  of  India  had  learned,  not  only  to  bless,  but 
also  to  curse  (Rv.  VI.  52)  :  — 

1.  No,  by  heaven  !  no,  by  earth  I    I  do  not  approve 
of  this ;  no,  by  the  sacrifice  !  no,  by  these  rites !     May 
the  mighty  mountains  crush  him  !     May  the  priest  of 
Atiya^a  perish ! 1 

2.  Whosoever,  O  Maruts,  weans  himself  above  us, 
or  scoffs  at  the  prayer  ("  brahma ")  which  we  have 
made,  may  hot  plagues  come  upon  him,  may  the  sky 
burn  up  that  hater  of  Brahmans  ("brahma-dvish  ")  ! 

3.  Did  they  not  call  thee,  Soma,  the  guardian  of  the 
Brahman  ?  did  they  not  say  that  thou  didst  shield  us 
against  curses  ?     Why  dost  thou  look  on  when  we  are 
scoffed  at  ?     Hurl  against  the  hater  of  the  Brahman 
the  fiery  spear ! 

4.  May  the    coming   dawns   protect   me,    may   the 
swelling  rivers  protect  me  !     May  the  firm  mountains 
protect  me  !     May  the  Fathers  protect  me  at  the  invo- 
cation of  the  gods ! 

5.  May  we  always  be  happy,  may  we  see  the  rising 

l  See  J.   Muir,  On  the  Relations  of  the  Priests,  p.  33  ;  and  Wilson 
Translation  of  the  Rig-veda,  vol.  iii.  p.  490. 


CASTE.  327 

Bun !  May  the  Lord  of  the  Vasus  order  it  thus,  he 
who  brings  the  gods,  and  is  most  ready  with  his 
help ;  — 

6.  Indra  who  comes  nearest  with  his  help ;  Sarasvati, 
the  swelling,  with  the  rivers  ;  Pan/ariya  who  blesses  us 
with  plants;  the  glorious  Agni  who,  like  a  father,  is 
ready  to  hear  when  we  call ;  — 

7.  All  ye  gods,  come  hither!  hear  this  my  prayer! 
Sit  down  on  this  altar ! 

8.  To  him,  O  gods,  who  honors  you  by  an  oblation 
flowing  with  butter,  to  him  ye  come  all. 

9.  May  they  who  are  the  sons  of  the  Immortal,  hear 
our  prayers,  may  they  be  gracious  to  us  ! 

10.  May  all  the  righteous  gods  who  hear  our  pray- 
ers, receive  at  all  seasons  this  acceptable  milk  ! 

11.  May  Indra,  -with  the  host  of  the  Maruts,  accept 
our  praise ;  may  Mitra  with  Tvashter,  may  Aryaman 
receive  these  our  oblations  ! 

12.  O  Agni,  carry  this  our  sacrifice  wisely,  looking 
for  the  divine  host. 

13.  All  ye  gods,  hear  this  my  call,  ye  who  are  in 
the  air,  and  in  the  sky,  ye  who  have  tongues  of  fire,1 
and  are  to  be  worshipped ;  sit  down  on  this  altar  and 
rejoice ! 

14.  May  all  the  holy  gods  hear,  may  Heaven  and 
Earth,  and  the  Child  of  the  waters  (the  Sun)  hear  my 
prayer  !     May  I  not  speak  words  which  you  cannot 
approve,  may  we  rejoice  in  your  favors,  as  your  nearest 
friends  ! 

15.  May  the  great  gods,  who  are  as  strong  as  the 
enemy,  who  sprang  from  the  earth,  from  heaven,  and 

i  This  means  the  gods  who  receive  sacrifice  offered  on  the  fire  of  th« 
•Itar. 


328  CASTE. 

from  the  conflux  of  the  waters,  give  us  gifts  according 
to  our  desire,  all  our  life,  day  and  night ! 

16.  Agni  and  Par^anya,  accept  my  prayer,  and  our 
praise  at  this  invocation,  ye  who  are  well  invoked.    One 
made  the  earth,  the  other  the  seed :  give  to  us  here 
wealth  and  progeny ! 

17.  When    the    grass   is   spread,  when   the   fire   is 
kindled,  I  worship  with  a  hymn  with  great  veneration. 
Rejoice  to-day,  ye  adorable  Visve  Devas,  in  the  obla- 
tion offered  at  this  our  sacrifice  ! 

The  priests  never  aspired  to  royal  power.  "  A 
Brahmin,"  they  say,  "is  not  fit  for  royalty."  ($ata- 
patha-brahmafta,  V.  1,  1,  12).  They  left  the  insignia 
of  royalty  to  the  military  caste.  But  woe  to  the  war- 
rior who  would  not  submit  to  their  spiritual  guidance, 
or  who  would  dare  to  perform  his  sacrifice  without 
waiting  for  his  Samuel !  There  were  fierce  and  san- 
guinary struggles  between  the  priests  and  the  nobility, 
before  the  king  consented  to  bow  before  the  Brahmin. 
In  the  Veda  we  still  find  kings  composing  their  own 
hymns  to  the  gods,  royal  bards,  Ra^arshis,  who  united 
in  their  person  the  powers  both  of  king  and  priest. 
The  family  of  Visvamitra  has  contributed  its  own  col- 
lection of  hymns  to  the  Rig-veda,  but  Visvamitra  him- 
self was  of  royal  descent ;  and  if  in  later  times  he  is 
represented  as  admitted  into  the  Brahmanic  family  of 
the  Bhrigus,  —  a  family  famous  for  its  sanctity  as  well 
as  its  valor,  —  this  is  but  an  excuse  invented  by  the 
Brahmans,  in  order  to  explain  what  would  otherwise 
have  upset  their  own  system.  King  (kanaka  of  Videha 
is  represented  in  some  of  the  Brahmawas  as  more 
learned  than  any  of  the  Brahmans  at  his  court.  Yet; 


CASTE.  329 

when  instructed  by  Ya^navalkya  as  to  the  real  nature 
of  the  soul  and  its  identity  with  Brahma,  or  the  divine 
spirit,  he  exclaims,  "  I  will  give  thee,  O  Venerable, 
the  kingdom  of  the  Videhas,  and  my  own  self,  to  be- 
come thy  slave." 

As  the  influence  of  the  Brahmans  extended,  they 
became  more  and  more  jealous  of  their  privileges,  and, 
while  fixing  their  own  privileges,  they  endeavored  at 
the  same  time  to  circumscribe  the  duties  of  the  war- 
riors and  the  householders.     Those  of  the  Aryas  who 
would  not  submit  to  the  laws  of  the  three  estates  were 
treated  as  outcasts,  and  they  are  chiefly  known  by  the 
name  of  "  Vratyas,"  or  tribes.     They  spoke  the  same 
language  as  the  three  Aryan  castes,  but  they  did  not 
submit  to  Brahmanic  discipline,  and  they  had  to  per- 
form certain  penances  if  they  wished  to  be  readmitted 
into    the  Aryan   society.     The   aboriginal  inhabitants 
again,  who  conformed  to  the  Brahmanic  law,  received 
certain  privileges,   and  were    constituted  as  a   fourth 
caste,  under  the  name  of  "/Sudras,"  whereas  all  the  rest 
who  kept  aloof  were  called  "  Dasyus,"  whatever  their 
language  might  be  (Manu,  X.  45).     This  Brahmanic 
constitution,  however,  was  not  settled  in  a  day,  and  we 
tind  everywhere  in  the  hymns,  in  the  Brahmawas,  and 
in  the  epic  poems,  the  traces  of  a  long  continued  war- 
fare between  the  Aryas  and  the  aboriginal  inhabitants, 
and  violent  contests  between  the  two  highest  classes  of 
the  Aryas  striving  for  political  supremacy.     For  a  long 
time  the  three  upper  classes  continued  to  consider  them- 
selves as  one  race,  all  claiming  the  title  of  Arya,  in 
contradistinction  from  the  fourth  caste,  or  the  Sudras 
Tn   the  Brahmanas  it  is  stated  distinctly :  Aryas  are 
only  the  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  and  Vaisyas,  for  they 


880  CASTE. 

are  admitted  to  the  sacrifices.  They  shall  not  speak 
with  everybody,  for  the  gods  did  not  speak  with  every- 
body, but  only  with  the  Brahman,  the  Kshatriya,  and 
the  Vaisya.  If  they  should  fall  into  a  conversation 
with  a  *Sudra,  let  them  say  to  another  man,  "  Tell  this 
iSudra  so."  In  several  passages  of  the  Puranas,  where 
an  account  of  the  creation  is  given,  we  hear  of  hut  one 
original  caste,  which,  by  the  difference  of  works,  be- 
came afterwards  divided  into  three.  Professor  Wilson 
says :  — 

"  The  existence  of  but  one  caste  in  the  age  of  purity, 
however  incompatible  with  the  legend  which  ascribes 
the  origin  of  the  four  castes  to  Brahm&,  is  everywhere 
admitted.  Their  separation  is  assigned  to  different 
individuals,  whether  accurately  to  any  one  may  be 
doubted  ;  but  the  notion  indicates  that  the  distinction 
was  of  a  social  or  political  character." 

In  some  places  the  threefold  division  of  caste  is  rep- 
resented to  have  taken  place  in  the  TretS.  age,  and  Mr. 
Muir  quotes  a  passage  from  the  Bhagavatapurawa, 
where  it  is  said,  — 

"  There  was  formerly  only  one  Veda,  only  one  God, 
one  fire,  and  one  caste.  From  Pururavas  came  the 
triple  Veda,  in  the  beginning  of  the  Treta  age." 

A  similar  idea  is  expressed  in  the  account  of  the 
creation  given  in  the  Brihad-&ranyaka-upanishad.  It 
is  there  stated  that  in  the  beginning  there  was  but  One, 
which  was  Brahman  ;  that  Brahman  created  the  war- 
like gods,  such  as  Indra,  Varuwa,  Soma,  Rudra,  Par- 
granya,  Yama,  Mrityu,  and  Isana.  That  after  that,  he 
created  the  corporations  of  gods,  the  Vasus,  Rudras, 
Adityas,  Visve  Devas,  and  Maruts  ;  and  at  last  he 
created  the  earth,  which  supports  all  things.  This 


CASTE.  331 

creation  of  the  gods  is  throughout  treated  as  a  prelude 
to  the  creation  of  man.  And  as  Brahman  was  the 
first  god,  so  the  Brahman  is  the  first  man.  As  the 
warlike  gods  came  after,  so  after  the  Brahman  comes 
the  Kshatriya.  As  the  corporations  of  gods  came 
third,  so  the  corporations  of  men,  the  Vaisyas,  occupy 
the  third  place,  whereas  the  fourth  order,  the  AS'udra 
color,  is  represented  as  the  earth  or  Pushan,  this  being 
one  of  their  ancient  gods,  who  is  called  Pushan  because 
he  nourishes  all  beings.  Practical  conclusions  are  at 
once  drawn  from  this  passage.  "  Brahman,"  it  is  said, 
"is  the  birthplace  of  the  Kshatriya;  therefore,  although 
the  king  obtains  the  highest  dignity,  he  at  last  takes 
refuge  in  Brahman  as  in  his  birthplace.  Whosoever 
despises  him,  destroys  his  own  birthplace ;  he  is  a  very 
great  sinner,  like  a  man  who  injures  his  superior." 

Even  the  name  of  gods  is  claimed  for  the  Brahmans 
as  early  as  the  Brahmawa  period.  In  the  /Satapatha- 
brahmana  (II.  2,  2,  6),  we  read  :  "  There  are  two  kinds 
of  gods :  first  the  gods,  then  those  who  are  BrShmans, 
and  who  have  learnt  the  Veda  and  repeat  it ;  they  are 
human  gods  (' manushya-devaA  ').  And  this  sacrifice 
is  twofold :  oblations  for  the  gods,  gifts  for  the  human 
gods,  the  Brahmans,  who  have  learnt  the  Veda  and  re- 
peat it.  With  oblations  he  appeases  the  gods,  with 
gifts  the  human  gods,  the  Br&hmans,  who  have  learnt 
the  Veda  and  repeat  it.  Both  gods  when  they  are 
pleased,  place  him  in  bliss." 

Nevertheless,  the  Brahman  knew  how  to  be  humble 
where  it  was  necessary.  "  None  is  greater,"  he  says, 
"  than  the  warrior,  therefore  the  Brahman  under  the 
warrior  worships  at  the  royal  sacrifice." 

After  long  and  violent  struggles  between  the  Br£h- 


832  CASTE. 

mans  and  the  Kshatriyas,  the  Brahmans  carried  the 
day,  and,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  legends  which  they 
themselves  have  preserved  of  these  struggles,  they 
snded  with  the  total  destruction  of  most  of  the  old 
Kshatriya  families  and  the  admission  of  a  few  of  them 
to  the  privileges  of  the  first  caste.  Parasurama  is  the 
great  hero  of  the  Brahmans  :  — 

"  He  cleared  the  earth  thrice  seven  times  of  the 
Kshatriya  caste,  and  filled  with  their  blood  the  five 
large  lakes  of  Samanta,  from  which  he  offered  libations 
to  the  race  of  Bhrigu.  Offering  a  solemn  sacrifice  to 
the  king  of  the  gods,  Parasurama  presented  the  earth 
to  the  ministering  priests.  Having  given  the  earth  to 
Kasyapa,  the  hero  of  immeasurable  prowess  retired  to 
the  Mahendra  mountain,  where  he  still  resides ;  and  in 
this  manner  was  there  enmity  between  him  and  the 
race  of  the  Kshatriyas,  and  thus  was  the  whole  earth 
conquered  by  Parasurama." 

The  destruction  of  the  Kshatriyas  by  Parasurama 
had  been  provoked  by  the  cruelty  of  the  Kshatriyas. 
We  are  told  that  there  had  been  a  king  Kritavirya,  by 
whose  liberality  the  Bhrigus,  who  officiated  as  his 
priests,  had  been  greatly  enriched  with  corn  and  money. 
After  he  had  gone  to  heaven  his  descendants  were  in 
want  of  money,  and  came  to  beg  for  a  supply  from  the 
Bhrigus,  of  whose  wealth  they  were  aware.  Some  of 
the  latter  hid  their  money  under  ground,  others  be- 
stowed it  on  Brahmans,  being  afraid  of  the  Kshatriyas, 
while  others  again  gave  these  last  what  they  wanted. 
It  happened,  however,  that  a  Kshatriya,  while  digging 
the  ground,  discovered  the  money  concealed  in  the 
house  of  a  Bhrigu.  The  Kshatriyas  then  assembled 
and  saw  this  treasure,  and  slew  in  consequence  all  the 


CASTE.  333 

Bhrigus  down  to  the  children  in  the  womb.  One  of 
them  concealed  her  unborn  child.  The  Kshatriyas, 
hearing  of  its  existence,  sought  to  kill  it ;  but  it  issued 
forth  with  a  lustre  which  blinded  the  persecutors. 
They  now  humbly  supplicated  the  mother  of  the  child 
for  the  restoration  of  their  sight;  but  she  referred  them 
to  her  wonderful  infant,  Aurva,  into  whom  the  whole 
Vedas  had  entered,  as  the  person  who  had  robbed  them 
of  their  sight,  and  who  alone  could  restore  it.  Aurva 
did  restore  their  sight,  and,  admonished  by  the  spirits 
of  his  ancestors,  he  abstained  from  taking  vengeance 
on  the  Kshatriyas;  but  vengeance  was  to  come  from 
the  Bhrigus  upon  the  Kshatriyas.  Parasurama,  the 
scourge  of  the  Kshatriyas,  was,  through  his  father 
(Sramadagni  and  his  grandfather  Jfi&ika,  a  descendant 
of  the  Bhrigus,  though,  through  his  grandmother,  the 
daughter  of  Gadhi,  the  king  of  Kanyakub^a,  he  be- 
longed to  the  royal  race  of  the  Kusikas. 

This  royal  race  of  the  Kusikas,  which  produced  the 
avenger  of  the  Brahmans,  the  destroyer  of  all  Ksha- 
triyas, Parasurama,  counts  among  its  members  another 
equally  remarkable  person,  Visvamitra.  He  was  the 
son  of  the  same  Gadhi  whose  daughter,  Satyavati,  be- 
came the  mother  of  6ramadagni  and  the  grandmother 
of  Parasurama.  Though  of  royal  extraction,  Visvft- 
mitra  conquered  for  himself  and  his  family  the  privi- 
leges of  a  Brahman.  He  became  a  Brahman,  and 
thus  broke  through  all  the  rules  of  caste.  The  Bral»- 

o 

mans  cannot  deny  the  fact,  because  it  forms  one  of  the 
^rincipal  subjects  of  their  legendary  poems.  But  they 
have  spared  no  pains  to  represent  the  exertions  of  Via- 
vamitra,  in  his  struggle  for  Brahmahood,  as  so  super- 
human that  no  one  would  easily  be  tempted  to  follow 


334  CASTE. 

his  example.  No  mention  is  made  of  these  monstrous 
penances  in  the  Veda,  where  the  struggle  between 
Visvamitra,  the  leader  of  the  Kusikas  or  Bharatas,  and 
the  Brahman  Vasish^Aa,  the  leader  of  the  white-robed 
Tritsus,  is  represented  as  the.  struggle  of  two  rivals  for 
the  place  of  Purohita,  or  chief  priest  and  minister  at 
the  court  of  king  Sudas,  the  son  of  Pi^avana.  In  the 
epic  poems  this  story  is  frequently  alluded  to,  and  we 
give  the  following  extracts  from  Mr.  Muir's  book,  as 
likely  to  throw  some  light  on  the  history  of  caste  in 
India :  — 

"  Saudasa  was  king  of  the  race  of  Ikshvaku.  Vis- 
vamitra wished  to  be  employed  by  him  as  his  officiating 
priest,  but  the  king  preferred  Vasish^Aa.  It  happened, 
however,  that  the  king  had  gone  out  to  hunt,  and 
meeting  /Saktri,  the  eldest  of  VasishzAa's  hundred  sons, 
on  the  road,  he  ordered  him  to  get  out  of  his  way. 
The  priest  civilly  replied,  '  The  path  is  mine,  O  king  ; 
this  is  the  immemorial  law  ;  in  all  observances  the  king 
must  cede  the  way  to  the  Brahman.'  In  later  times 
he  would  have  quoted  a  less  civil  sentence  from  the 
Brahma-vaivarta  :  '  He  who  does  not  immediately  bow 
down  when  he  sees  his  tutor,  or  a  Brahman,  or  the 
image  of  a  god,  becomes  a  hog  on  earth.'  The  king 
struck  the  priest  with  a  whip  ;  the  priest  cursed  the 
king  to  become  a  cannibal.  Visvamitra,  who  happened 
to  be  near,  took  advantage  of  this  fracas,  prevented 
the  king  from  imploring  the  priest's  mercy,  and  the 
priest  himself,  the  son  of  Vasish^Aa,  fell  .as  the  first  vic- 
tim of  Saudasa' s  cannibalism.  The  same  fate  befell  all 
the  other  sons  of  Vasish^Aa.  VasishfAa,  on  hearing  of 
the  destruction  of  his  sons  by  Visvamitra,  supported 
his  affliction  as  the  great  mountain  sustains  the  earth 


CASTE.  335 

He  meditated  his  own  destruction,  and  never  thought 
of  exterminating  the  Kausikas.  In  spite  of  repeated 
efforts,  however,  Vasishtfb.  failed  in  depriving  himself 
of  his  life,  and  when  returning  to  his  hermitage  he  dis- 
covered that  the  wife  of  his  eldest  son  was  pregnant, 
and  that  there  was  hope  of  his  lineage  beinw  continued. 

•*•  c*  o 

A  son  was  born,  and  he  was  called  Parasara.  The 
king  Saudasa  was  going  to  swallow  him  also,  when 
Vasish^Aa  interfered,  exorcised  the  king,  and  delivered 
him  from  the  curse  by  which  he  had  been  affected  for 
twelve  years.  Vasish^Aa  resumed  his  duties  as  priest, 
and  the  king  remained  a  patron  of  the  Brahmans,  but 
he  is  always  quoted  as  an  instance  of  a  Kshatriya,  hos- 
tile to  the  Brahmans,  and  punished  for  his  hostility." 

The  most  important  point  in  the  eyes  of  the  later 
Brahmans  was  how  Visvamitra,  being  born  a  Ksha- 
triya, could  have  become  a  Brahman,  and  it  is  for  the 
solution  of  this  difficulty  that  they  invented  the  most 
absurd  fables.  The  object  of  his  ambition  is  said  to 
have  been  the  cow  of  Vasish^Aa,  a  most  wonderful 
animal,  and,  though  in  the  end  he  did  not  obtain  that 
cow,  yet  he  obtained  by  penance,  performed  during 
thousands  of  years,  a  share  in  the  benefits  of  the 
priesthood.  Mr.  Muir  has  carefully  collected  all  the 
passages  from  the  Puranas  and  the  epic  poems,  which 
illustrate  the  contest  for  the  milk-cow  of  the  priest,  and 
the  chief  passages  from  the  Ramayawa  may  be  read  in 
Chevalier  Gorresio's  excellent  Italian  translation  of 
that  epic  poem. 

Another  difficulty  for  the  later  Brahmans  was  the 
case  of  their  own  most  famous  legislator,  Manu.  Pie, 
too,  was  by  birth,  a  Ra^anya  or  Kshatriya,  and  his 
father  Vivasvat  is  called  "  ths  seed  of  all  the  Ksha- 


836  CASTE. 

triyas  "  (Madhusudana,  Bhagavadgita,  IV.  1).  For  a 
Kshatriya  to  teach  the  law  was  a  crime  ("  svadharm&~ 
tikrama"),  and  it  is  only  by  a  most  artificial  line  of 
argument  that  the  dogmatic  philosophers  of  the  Mi- 
mawsa  school  tried  to  explain  this  away.  The  Brah- 
mans  seem  to  have  forgotten  that,  according  to  their  own 
Upanishads,  A</atasatru,  the  king  of  Kasi,  possessed 
more  knowledge  than  Gargya,  the  son  of  Balaka, 
who  was  renowned  as  a  reader  of  the  Veda,1  and  that 
Gargya  desired  to  become  his  pupil,  though  it  was  not 
right,  as  the  king  himself  remarked,  that  a  Kshatriya 
should  initiate  a  Brahman.  They  must  have  forgotten 
that  Pra vah ana  6raivali,  king  of  the  PanMlas,  silenced 
/SVetaketu  Aruweya  and  his  father,  and  then  communi- 
cated to  them  doctrines  which  Kshatriyas  only,  but  no 
Brahmans,  had  ever  known  before.2  That  king  6ra- 
naka  of  Videha  possessed  superior  knowledge  is  ac- 
knowledged by  one  of  the  most  learned  among  the 
Brahmans,  by  Ya^navalkya  himself;  and  in  the  £ata- 
patha-brahmawa,  which  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
work  of  Ya^navalkya,  it  is  said  that  king  6ranaka  be- 
came a  Brahman.3 

Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  historical  value  of 
such  traditions,  one  thing  is  quite  clear,  namely,  that 
the  priests  succeeded  in  establishing,  after  a  time,  a 
lucrative  supremacy,  and  that  it  was  worth  fighting  for 
to  be  admitted  to  their  caste.  When  the  supremacy 
of  the  Brahmans  was  once  firmly  established,  the  rules 

1  Kanshitaki  brahmana-upanishad,  cap.  4,  ed.   Cowell,  p.  167.      In  the 
Satapatlia-brahmana,  XIV.  5,  1,  nearly  the  same  story  is  told  of  Dripta- 
balaki  Gargya. 

2  AVjandogya-upanishad,  V.  3,  7,  translated  by  Dr.  Roe'r,  p.  85.    In  th« 
8atapatha-brahmana,  XIV.  9,  1,  read  £aivalL 

*  jSatapatha-brahmana,  XI.  6,  2,  5. 


CASTE  337 

about  caste  became  stricter  than  ever,  and  the  prohibi- 
tion of  marriage,  not  only  between  Aryas  and  Madras, 
but  between  the  different  castes  of  Aryas,  became 
essential  for  the  maintenance  of  those  privileges  for 
which  the  Brahrnans  and  Kshatriyas  had  been  fight- 
ing their  sanguinary  battles.  It  is,  indeed,  only  in 
the  very  latest  works  of  the  Vedic  period  of  litera- 
ture that  we  meet  with  the  first  traces  of  that  intoler- 
ant spirit  of  caste  which  pervades  the  "  Laws  of 
Manu."  But  that  the  oppressiveness  of  the  system 
and  the  arrogant  tyranny  of  the  Brahmans  were  felt 
by  the  people  at  an  earlier  period  we  may  guess  from 
that  reaction  which  called  forth  the  opposite  system  of 
Buddha,  and  led  to  the  adoption  of  Buddhism  as  the 
state  religion  of  India  in  the  third  century  B.  c.  Buddha 
himself  was  a  Kshatriya,  a  royal  prince,  like  (kanaka, 
like  Visvamitra,  and  the  secret  of  his  success  lies  in 
his  disregard  of  the  privileges  of  the  priestly  caste. 
He  addressed  himself  to  all  classes ;  nay,  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  poor  and  the  degraded  rather  than  to 
the  rich  and  the  high.  He  did  not  wish  to  abolish 
caste  as  a  social  institution,  and  there  is  no  trace  of 
social  leveling  or  democratic  communism  in  any  of  his 
sermons.  His  only  attacks  were  leveled  against  the 
exclusive  privileges  claimed  by  the  Brahmans,  and 
against  their  cruel  treatment  of  the  lowest  castes.  He 

O 

was  met  by  the  Brahmans  with  the  same  arguments 
with  which  they  had  met  former  reformers  :  "  How 
can  a  Kshatriya  take  upon  himself  the  office  of  a 
priest?  He  breaks  the  most  sacred  law  by  attempting 
to  interfere  in  religious  matters."  Buddha,  however, 
having  no  views  of  personal  aggrandizement  like  Vis- 
vamitra,  and  abstaining  from  all  offensive  warfare,  sim- 

VOL.  it.  22 


338  CASTE. 

ply  went  on  preaching  and  teaching,  that  "  all  that  ia 
born  must  die,  that  virtue  is  better  than  vice,  that  pas- 
sions  must  be  subdued,  till  a  man  is  ready  to  give  up 
everything,  even  his  own  self."  These  doctrines  would 
hardly  have  possessed  so  great  a  charm  in  the  eyes  of 
the  people  if  they  had  not  been  preached  by  a  man  of 
royal  extraction,  who  had  given  up  his  exalted  position 
and  mixed  with  the  lowest  classes  as  his  friends  and 
equals. 

"  As  the  four  rivers  which  fall  in  the  Ganges  lose 
their  names  as  soon  as  they  mingle  their  waters  with 
the  holy  river,  so  all  who  believe  in  Buddha  cease  to 
be  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  Vaisyas,  and  /S'udras." 

This  was  the  teaching  of  Buddha.     Or  again,  — 

"  Between  a  Brahman  and  a  man  of  another  caste 
there  is  not  the  same  difference  as  between  gold  and  a 
stone,  or  between  light  and  darkness.  The  Brahman 
is  born  of  a  woman,  so  is  the  .ffandala.  If  the  Brah- 
man is  dead,  he  is  left  as  a  thing  impure,  like  the  other 
castes.  Where  is  the  difference  ?  "  "  If  the  Brah- 
mans were  above  the  law,  if  for  them  there  were  no 
unhappy  consequences  of  sins  committed,  then,  indeed, 
they  might  be  proud  of  their  caste."  "  My  law  is  a 
law  of  grace  for  all."  "  My  doctrine  is  like  the  sky. 
There  is  room  for  all  without  exception  —  men,  wo- 
men, boys,  girls,  poor,  and  rich." 

Such  a  doctrine,  preached  in  a  country  enthralled 
under  the  rules  of  caste,  was  sure  to  conquer.  At  tho 
bidding  of  Buddha  the  evil  spirit  of  caste  seems  to 
have  vanished.  Thieves  and  robbers,  beggars  and 
cripples,  slaves  and  prostitutes,  bankrupts  and  sweep- 
ers gathered  around  him.  But  kings  also  carne  to 
confess  their  sins  and  to  perform  public  penance,  and 


CASTE.  389 

the  most  learned  among  the  Brahmans  confessed  their 
ignorance  before  Buddha.  Hindu  society  was  changed. 
The  dynasties  which  reigned  in  the  chief  cities  of  In- 
dia were  /S'udras.  The  language  used  in  their  edicts 
is  no  longer  Sanskrit,  but  the  vulgar  dialects.  The 
Brahmanic  sacrifices  were  abolished,  and  buildings  rose 
over  the  whole  of  India,  sacred  through  the  relics  of 
Buddha  which  they  contained,  and  surrounded  by 
monasteries  open  to  all  ranks,  to  Brahmans  and  /S'udras, 
to  men  and  women.  How  long  this  state  of  things 
lasted  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  when  Fahian,  the  Chinese  pilgrim,  trav- 
elled through  India,  a  Brahmanic  reaction  had  already 
commenced  in  some  parts  of  the  country.  At  the 
time  of  Hiouen-thsang,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century,  Buddhism  was  losing  ground  rapidly,  and 
some  of  its  most  sacred  places  were  in  ruins.  The 
Brahmans  had  already  gained  back  much  of  their 
former  influence,  and  they  soon  grew  strong  enough  to 
exterminate  forever  the  heresy  of  Buddha  on  the  soil 
of  India,  and  to  reestablish  orthodoxy  under  /Sankara- 
A&arya.  There  are  at  present  no  Buddhists  left  in 
India ;  they  have  migrated  to  Ceylon  in  the  South,  to 
Nepal,  Thibet,  and  China  in  the  North.  After  the  vic- 
torious return  of  the  Brahmans  the  old  laws  of  caste 
were  reenacted  more  vigorously  than  ever,  and  the 
Brahmans  became  again  what  they  had  been  before  the 
rise  of  Buddhism  —  the  terrestrial  gods  of  India.  A 
change,  however,  had  come  over  the  system  of  caste. 
Though  the  laws  of  Manu  still  spoke  of  four  castes,  of 
Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  Vaisyas,  and  Suclras,  the  social 
confusion  during  the  long  reign  of  Buddhism  had  left 
but  one  broad  distinction  ;  on  the  one  side  the  pure 


340  CASTE. 

caste  :£  the  Brahman ;  on  the  other,  the  mixed  and 
impure  castes  of  the  people.  In  many  places  the 
pure  castes  of  the  Kshatriyas  and  Vaisyas  had  become 
extinct,  and  those  who  could  not  prove  their  Brah- 
manic  descent  were  all  classed  together  as  $udras. 
At  present  we  should  look  in  vain  for  pure  Kshatriyas 
and  Vaisyas  in  India,  and  the  families  which  still  claim 
those  titles  would  find  it  difficult  to  produce  their  pedi- 
gree. Nay  there  are  few  who  could  even  lay  claim  to 
the  pure  blood  of  the  /Sudra.  Low  as  the  Sudra  stood 
in  the  system  of  Manu,  he  stood  higher  than  most  of 
the  mixed  castes,  the  Varnasankaras.  The  son  of  a 
$udra  by  a  /S'iidra  woman  is  purer  than  the  son  of  a 
$iidra  by  a  woman  of  the  highest  caste  (Manu,  X.  30). 
Manu  calls  the  ^Candala  one  of  the  lowest  outcasts, 
because  he  is  the  son  of  a  $udra  father  and  a  Brah- 
manic  mother.  He  evidently  considered  the  misalli- 
ance of  a  woman  more  degrading  than  that  of  a  man. 
For  the  son  of  a  Brahman  father  and  a  /S'udra  mother 
may  in  the  seventh  generation  raise  his  family  to  the 
highest  caste  (Manu,  X.  64)  ;  while  the  son  of  a  $udra 
father  and  a  Brahman  mother  belongs  forever  to  the 
.ffandalas.  The  abode  of  the  jfiTandalas  must  be  out 
of  the  town,  and  no  respectable  man  is  to  hold  inter- 
course with  them.  By  day  they  must  walk  about  dis- 
tinguished by  badges ;  by  night  they  are  driven  out  of 
the  city. 

Manu  represents,  indeed,  all  the  castes  of  Hindu  so- 
ciety, and  their  number  is  considerable,  as  the  result 
of  mixed  marriages  between  the  four  original  castes. 
According  to  him,  the  four  primitive  castes,  by  inter- 
marrying iu  every  possible  way,  gave  rise  to  sixteen 
mixed  castes,  which  by  continuing  their  intermarriages 


CASTE.  341 

produced  the  long  list  of  the  mixed  castes.  It  is  ex- 
tremely doubtful,  however,  whether  Maim  meant  to 
say  that  at  all  times  the  offspring  of  a  mixed  marriage 
had  to  enter  a  lower  caste.  He  could  not  possibly 
maintain  that  the  son  of  a  Brahman  father  and  a 
Vaisya  mother  would  always  be  a  physician  or  a 
Vaidya,  this  being  the  name  given  by  Manu  to  the  off- 
spring of  these  two  castes.  At  present  the  offspring 
of  a  /Sfidra  father  and  a  Brahman  mother  would  find 
no  admission  in  any  respectable  caste.  Their  mar- 
riage would  not  be  considered  marriage  at  all.  The 
only  rational  explanation  of  Manu's  words  seems  to  be 
that  originally  the  caste  of  the  Vaidyas  or  physicians 
sprang  from  the  union  of  a  Brahman  father  and  a  Vaisya 
mother,  though  this,  too,  is  of  course  nothing  but  a 
fanciful  theory.  If  we  look  more  carefully,  we  fhall 
find  that  most  of  these  mixed  castes  are  in  reality  the 
professions,  trades,  and  guilds  of  a  half-civilized  society. 
They  did  not  wait  for  mixed  marriages  before  they 
came  into  existence.  Professions,  trades,  and  handi- 
crafts had  grown  up  without  any  reference  to  caste  in 
the  ethnological  or  political  sense  of  the  word.  Some 
of  their  names  were  derived  from  towns  and  countries 
where  certain  professions  were  held  in  particular  esti- 
mation. Servants  who  waited  on  ladies  were  called 
"  Vaidehas,"  because  they  came  from  Videha,  the 
Athens  of  India,  just  as  the  French  called  the  "  por- 
teur  d'eau"  a  "  Savoyard."  To  maintain  that  every 
member  of  the  caste  of  the  Vaidehas,  in  fact,  every 
lady's  maid,  had  to  be  begotten  through  the  marriage 
of  a  Vaisya  and  a  Brahmam,  is  simply  absurd.  In 
other  cases  the  names  of  Manu's  castes  were  derived 
from  their  occupations.  The  caste  of  musicians,  for 


342  CASTE. 

instance,  were  called  "Verais,"  from  "  viwa,"  the 
lyre.  Now,  it  was  evidently  Manu's  object  to  bring 
these  professional  corporations  in  connection  with  the 
old  system  of  the  castes,  assigning  to  each,  according 
to  ?ts  higher  or  lower  position,  a  more  or  less  pure  de- 
scent from  the  original  castes.  The  Vaidyas,  for  in- 
stance, or  the  physicians,  evidently  a  respectable  cor- 
poration, were  represented  as  the  offspring  of  a  Brah- 
man father  and  a  Vaisya  mother,  while  the  guild  of 
the  fishermen,  or  Nishadas,  were  put  down  as  the  de- 
scendants of  a  Brahman  father  and  a  /Sudra  mother. 
Manu  could  hardly  mean  to  say  that  every  son  of  a 
Vaisya  father  and  Kshatriya  mother  was  obliged  to  be- 
come a  commercial  traveller,  or  to  enter  the  caste  of 
the  Magadhas.  How  could  that  caste  have  been  sup- 
plied after  the  extinction  in  many  places  of  the  Ksha- 
triya and  Vaisya  castes  ?  But,  having  to  assign  to  the 
Magadhas  a  certain  social  position,  Manu  recognized 
them  as  the  descendants  of  the  second  and  third  castes, 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  Herald  office  would  settle 
the  number  of  quarters  of  an  earl  or  a  baron. 

Thus,  after  the  political  caste  had  become  nearly  ex- 
tinct in  India,  leaving  nothing  behind  but  the  broad 
distinction  between  the  Brahmans  and  mixed  castes,  a 
new  system  of  caste  came  in  of  a  purely  professional 
character,  though  artificially  grafted  on  the  rotten 
trunk  of  the  ancient  political  castes.  This  is  the  system 
which  is  still  in  force  in  India,  and  which  has  exercised 
its  influence  on  the  state  of  Indian  society  for  good  and 
evil.  During  periods  of  history  when  public  opinion  is 
weak,  and  when  the  administration  of  justice  is  pre- 
carious, institutions  analogous  to  these  Indian  castes 
must  necessarily  spring  into  existence.  Men  who  have 


CASTE.  343 

the  same  interests,  the  same  occupations,  the  same 
principles,  unite  in  self-defense,  and  after  acquiring 
power  and  influence  they  not  only  defend  their  rights, 
but  claim  important  privileges.  They  naturally  impose 
upon  their  members  certain  rules  which  are  considered 
essential  to  the  interest  of  their  caste  or  company. 
These  rules,  sometimes  of  apparently  the  most  trifling 
character,  are  observed  by  individual  members  with 
greater  anxiety  than  even  the  laws  of  religion,  because 
an  offense  against  the  latter  may  be  pardoned,  while  a 
disregard  of  the  former  would  lead  to  instant  exclusion 
or  loss  of  caste.  Many  a  Hindu  carrier  would  admit 
that  there  was  no  harm  in  his  fetching  water  for  his 
master.  But  he  belongs  to  a  caste  of  carriers  who 
have  bound  themselves  not  to  fetch  water,  and  it  would 
be  dishonorable  if  he,  for  his  own  personal  convenience, 
were  to  break  that  rule.  Besides  it  would  interfere 
with  the  privileges  of  another  caste,  the  water-carriers. 
There  is  an  understanding  in  most  parts  of  India  that 
certain  trades  should  be  carried  on  by  certain  castes, 
and  the  people  no  doubt  have  the  same  means  of  pun- 
ishing interlopers  as  the  guilds  had  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  more  lucrative  the  trade,  the  more  jeal- 
ously it  was  guarded,  and  there  was  evidently  no  trade 
in  India  so  lucrative  as  that  of  the  priests.  The  priests 
were  therefore  the  strongest  advocates  of  the  system  of 
caste,  and  after  investing  it  with  a  sacred  character  in 
the  eyes  of  the  people,  they  expanded  it  into  an  im- 
mense spider's  web,  which  separated  class  from  class., 
family  from  family,  man  from  man,  and  which,  while 
it  rendered  all  united  public  action  impossible,  enabled 
the  watchful  priests  to  pounce  upon  all  who  dared  to 
disturb  the  threads  of  their  social  tissue,  and  to  wither 


844  CASTE. 

them  to  death.  But  although  much  harm  was  ctone  by 
allowing  the  priests  to  gain  too  great  an  influence, 
much  good  also  was  achieved  by  the  system  of  caste 
with  regard  to  public  morality.  A  man  knew  that  he 
might  lose  caste  for  offenses  of  which  the  law  would 
take  no  cognizance.  Immorality  and  drunkenness 
might  be  punished  by  degradation  or  loss  of  caste.  In 
fact,  if  caste  could  be  divested  of  that  religious  charac- 
ter which  the  priests  for  their  own  advantage  suc- 
ceeded in  fastening  upon  it,  thereby  giving  an  un- 
natural permanence  and  sanctity  to  what  ought  to  be, 
like  all  social  institutions,  capable  of  change  and  growth, 
it  would  probably  be  found  that  the  system  of  caste  was 
well  adapted  to  that  state  of  society  and  that  form  of 
government  which  has  hitherto  existed  in  India ;  and 
that  if  it  wrere  suddenly  destroyed,  more  harm  than 
good  would  follow  from  such  a  change. 

The  great  objections  against  the  system  of  castes  as 
it  exists  at  present,  are,  that  it  prevents  people  from 
dining  witli  whom  they  please,  from  marrying  whom 
they  please,  and  from  following  what  profession  they 
please.  The  mere  prohibition  of  dining  together  is  no 
very  serious  inconvenience,  particularly  in  Eastern 
countries  ;  and  people  belonging  to  different  castes,  and 
abstaining  from  mutual  hospitality,  may  entertain, 
nevertheless,  the  most  friendly  relations.  Dining  to- 
gether among  oriental  nations  has  a  different  meaning 
from  what  it  has  with  us.  It  is  more  than  our  social 
feeding  together.  It  is  dining  en  famille.  No  one 
invites,  and  no  one  wishes  to  be  invited.  At  all  events 
there  is  something  mutual  in  caste.  It  is  not  that  the 
rich  may  visit  the  poor,  but  that  the  poor  must  not 
visit  the  rich.  It  is  not  that  the  Brahman  may  invite 


CASTE.  345 

the  Sudra  to  dinner,  but  must  not  be  tnvite.l  in  turn. 
No  one  in  India  is  ashamed  of  his  caste,  and  the  lowest 
Pariah  is  as  proud  and  as  anxious  to  preserve  his  own 
caste  as  the  highest  Brahman.  The  Turas,  a  class  of 
/Sttdras,  consider  their  houses  defiled,  and  throw  away 
their  cooking  utensils,  if  a  Brahman  visit  them. 
Another  class  of  >Sudras  throw  away  their  cooking 
vessels  if  a  Brahman  comes  upon  their  boat.  Invite 
one  of  the  lowest  orders  of  /Sfidras  to  a  feast  with  a 
European  of  the  highest  rank,  and  he  turns  away  his 
face  with  the  most  marked  disgust. 

O 

The  prohibition  of  certain  marriages,  again,  is  less 
keenly  felt  in  an  Eastern  country  than  it  would  be 
among  ourselves.  Nor  is  the  prohibition  of  marriages 
the  result  of  caste  alone.  People  belonging  to  the  same 
caste  are  prohibited  from  marrying  on  account  of  their 
pedigree.  Kulins,  /Srotriyas,  and  Vamsa^as,  though  all 
of  them  Brahrnans,  will  freely  dine  together,  though 
they  have  scruples  about  allowing  their  children  to 
marry.  The  six  divisions  of  the  caste  of  the  Tatis,  or 
weavers,  will  neither  visit  nor  intermarry  with  each 
other.  These  are  social  prejudices  which  exist  in  half- 
civilized  countries,  and  which  even  in  Europe  are  not 
quite  extinct.  Nay,  it  is  doubtful  whether  an  absolute 
prohibition  of  certain  marriages  is  more  cruel  than  a 
partial  prohibition.  It  is  certainly  a  curious  fact, 
which  psychologists  have  still  to  explain,  that  people 
very  seldom  fall  in  love  when  marriage  is  absolutely 
impossible.  Now,  there  never  has  been,  and  there 
never  will  be,  any  state  of  society  without  the  distinc- 
tions of  birth,  position,  education,  and  wealth ;  and,  in 
order  to  keep  up  these  distinctions,  marriages  between 
high  and  low,  educated  and  uneducated,  rich  and  poor 


846  CASTE. 

people,  must  to  a  certain  extent  be  discouraged  and 
prohibited.  In  England,  where  women  occupy  so  dif- 
ferent a  position  in  society  from  what  they  do  in  the 
East,  where  they  are  conscious  of  their  own  worth  and 
of  their  own  responsibility,  exceptions  will  no  doubt 
occur.  A  young  lord  may  imagine  that  a  poor  govern- 
ess is  more  beautiful,  more  charming,  more  ladylike, 
more  likely  to  make  him  truly  happy  than  any  rich 
heiress  that  happens  to  be  in  the  market ;  the  daughter 
of  an  earl  may  imagine  that  the  young  curate  of  the  vil- 
lage is  more  manly,  more  cultivated,  more  of  a  gentle- 
man, than  any  of  the  young  scions  of  the  nobility ;  yet 
such  is  the  power  of  society,  such  is  the  hidden  in- 
fluence of  caste,  that  these  marriages  are  violently  op- 
posed by  fathers  and  mothers,  by  uncles  and  aunts.  In 
countries  where  such  marriages  are  altogether  impos- 
sible, much  shedding  of  tears  and  breaking  of  hearts 
are  avoided,  and  the  hardship  in  reality  is  not  greater 
than  what  every  commoner  in  England  endures  in  ab- 
staining from  falling  in  love  with  the  most  charming  of 
the  princesses  of  the  Royal  Family. 

As  to  the  choice  of  a  profession  being  circumscribed 
by  caste,  it  may  seem  to  be  a  great  grievance.  We 
read  but  lately  in  a  very  able  article  on  caste  in  the 
"  Calcutta  Review  :  "  — 

"  The  systems  by  which  a  person's  studies  and  pro- 
fession are  made  dependent  on  his  birth  can  never  be 
sufficiently  execrated.  The  human  mind  is  free,  it 
will  not  submit  to  restraints  ;  it  will  not  succumb  to  the 
regulations  of  freakish  legislators.  The  Brahman  or 
the  Kshatriya  may  have  a  son  whose  mind  is  ill  adapted 
to  his  hereditary  profession ;  the  Vaisya  may  have  a 
son  with  a  natural  dislike  for  a  counting-house,  and  the 


CASTE.  34T 

fS'udra  may  have  talents  superior  to  his  birth.  If  they 
be  forced  to  adhere  to  their  hereditary  professions  their 
minds  must  deteriorate." 

Now,  this  is  language  applicable  to  England  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  but  hardly  to  India.  Where  there 
is  a  well  organized  system  of  public  education,  a  boy 
may  choose  what  profession  he  likes.  But  where  this 
is  not  the  case,  the  father  most  likely  will  be  the  be&t 
teacher  of  his  son.  Even  in  England  the  public  ser- 
vice has  but  very  lately  been  thrown  open  to  all  classes, 
and  we  heard  it  stated  by  one  of  the  most  eminent  men 
that  the  Indian  Civil  Service  would  no  longer  be  fit  for 
the  sons  of  gentlemen.  Why  ?  Because  one  of  the 
elected  candidates  was  the  son  of  a  missionary.  The 
system  of  caste,  no  doubt,  has  its  disadvantages,  but 
many  of  them  are  inherent  in  human  society,  and  are 
felt  in  England  as  well  as  in  India. 

There  may  seem  to  be  an  essential  distinction  be- 
tween raste  in  India  and  caste  in  Europe,  the  one  be- 
ing invested  with  a  sacred  character  and  supposed  to  be 
unchangeable,  the  other  being  based  merely  on  tradi- 
tional prejudices  and  amenable  to  the  pressure  of  pub- 
lic opinion.  But  that  sacred  character  of  caste  is  a 
mere  imposition  of  the  priests,  and  could  be  removed 
without  removing  at  the  same  time  those  necessary 
social  distinctions  which  are  embodied  in  India  in  the 
system  of  caste.  In  a  country  governed,  if  not  polit- 
ically, at  least  intellectually,  by  priests,  the  constant  ap- 
peal to  divine  right,  divine  grace,  divine  institutions, 
loses  much  of  its  real  meaning.  Though  the  Brali- 
mans  may  appeal  to  the  "  Laws  of  Manu,"  these  Laws 
of  Manu,  like  the  Canon  Law  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
are  not  unchangeable.  The  Brahmans  themselves  vio- 


848  CASTE. 

late  these  laws  daily.  They  accept  gifts  from 
though  Manu  .declares  that  a  Brahman  shall  not  accept 
gifts  from  a  /S'udra.  They  will  bow  before  a  rich 
banker,  however  low  his  caste,  and  they  will  sit  on  the 
same  carpet  and  at  the  feet  of  a  >Srudra,  though  Manu 
declares  (VIII.  281),  "  A  man  of  the  lowest  class 
anxious  to  place  himself  on  the  same  seat  with  one  of 
the  highest,  is  to  be  banished  with  a  mark  branded  on 
his  back,"  etc.  In  fact,  however  unchangeable  the 
laws  of  caste  may  seem  in  the  eyes  of  the  Brahmans, 
they  have  only  to  open  their  eyes,  to  read  their  ancient 
works,  and  to  look  at  the  society  around  them,  in  order 
to  convince  themselves  that  caste  is  not  proof  against 
the  changes  of  time.  The  president  of  the  Dharma- 
sabha  at  Calcutta  is  a  $udra,  while  the  secretary  is  a 
Brahman.  Three  fourths  of  the  Brahmans  in  Bengal 
are  the  servants  of  others.  Many  traffic  in  spirituous 
liquors,  some  procure  beef  for  the  butchers,  and  wear 
shoes  made  of  cow  leather.  Some  of  the  Brahmans 
themselves  are  honest  enough  to  admit  that  the  Laws 
of  Manu  were  intended  for  a  different  age,  for  the 
mythical  Satyayuga,  while  the  Laws  of  the  Kaliyuga 
were  written  by  Parasara.  In  places  like  Calcutta  and 
Bombay  the  contact  with  English  society  exercises  a 
constant  attrition  on  the  system  of  castes,  and  produces 
silently  and  imperceptibly  a  greater  effect  than  can 
ever  be  produced  by  violent  declamation  against  the 
iniquity  of  caste.  As  soon  as  the  female  population  of 
India  can  be  raised  from  their  present  degradation  ;  as 
soon  as  a  better  education  and  a  purer  religion  will 
have  inspired  the  women  of  India  with  feelings  of 
moral  responsibility  and  self-respect ;  as  soon  as  they 
have  learned  —  what  Christianity  alone  can  teach  — 


CASTE.  849 

that  in  the  true  love  of  a  woman  there  is  something  far 
above  the  law  of  caste  or  the  curses  of  priests,  their 
influence  will  be  the  most  powerful,  on  the  one  side,  to 
break  through  the  artificial  forms  of  caste,  and  on  the 
other,  to  maintain  in  India,  as  elsewhere,  the  true  caste 
of  rank,  manners,  intellect,  and  character. 

With  many  of  the  present  missionaries,  the  abolition 
of  caste  has  become  a  fixed  idea.  Some  of  the  early 
Roman  Catholic  missionaries,  no  doubt,  went  too  far  in 
their  toleration  of  caste,  but  some  of  the  most  efficient 
Protestant  missionaries,  men  of  the  school  of  Schwarz, 
have  never  joined  in  the  indiscriminate  condemnation 
of  caste,  and  have  allowed  their  Christian  converts  to 
keep  up,  under  the  name  of  caste,  those  social  dis- 
tinctions which  in  European  countries  are  maintained 
by  public  opinion,  by  the  good  feeling  and  the  self-re- 
spect of  the  lower  classes,  and,  where  necessary,  by 
the  power  of  the  law.  As  regards  the  private  life  of 
the  natives,  their  match-making,  their  hospitality,  their 
etiquette,  and  their  rules  of  precedence,  it  would  be 
unwise  for  missionaries  as  well  as  for  the  Government 
to  attempt  any  sudden  interference.  What  would  peo- 
ple say  in  England  if  Parliament,  after  admitting  the 
Jews,  were  to  insist  on  Mr.  Newdegate  shaking  hands 
with  Baron  Rothschild,  or  asking  the  Jewish  members 
to  his  dinner  parties?  How  would  the  fashionable 
occupants  of  our  church  pews  in  their  crisp  muslin 
dresses  like  it  if  the  bishops  were  to  require  that  they 
should  sit  side  by  side  with  men  in  oily  fustian  jackets? 
How  would  our  bankers  and  Quakers  bear  any  inter- 
ference with  their  system  of  marrying,  if  possible, 
within  their  own  families  ? 

There  are,  however,  certain  points  where  the  Gov- 


350  CASTE. 

eminent  will  have  to  interfere  with  caste,  and  where 
it  may  do  so  without  violating  any  pledge  and  without 
rousing  any  serious  opposition.  If  any  of  its  Indian 
subjects  are  treated  with  indignity  on  account  of  their 
caste,  the  law  will  have  to  give  them  protection.  In 
former  times  a  Pariah  was  obliged  to  carry  a  bell  — 
the  very  name  of  Pariah  is  derived  from  that  bell  —  in 
order  to  give  warning  to  the  Brahmans,  who  might  be 
polluted  by  the  shadow  of  an  outcast.  In  Malabar,  a 
Nayadi  defiles  a  Brahman  at  a  distance  of  seventy- 
four  paces;  and  a  Nayer,  though  himself  a  /S'udra, 
would  shoot  one  of  these  degraded  races  if  they  ap- 
proached too  near.  Here  the  duty  of  the  Government 
is  clear. 

Secondly,  no  attention  should  be  paid  to  caste  in  any 
contract  which  the  Government  makes  with  the  na- 
tives. Where  natives  are  to  be  employed,  whether  in 
the  civil  or  military  service,  no  concession  should  be 
made  to  the  punctilio  of  caste.  Soldiers  must  not  only 
fight  together,  but  they  must  live  and  mess  together. 
Those  who  have  any  conscientious  objections  must 
stay  away. 

Thirdly,  caste  must  be  ignored  in  all  public  institu- 
tions, such  as  schools,  hospitals,  and  prisons.  Railway 
companies  cannot  provide  separate  carriages  for  each 
of  the  fifty  castes  that  may  wish  to  travel  by  them- 
selves, nor  can  Government  provide  separate  forms,  or 
wards,  or  cells  for  Brahmans  and  £udras.  Firmness 
on  the  part  of  the  Government  is  all  that  is  required. 
At  Madras  a  few  Pariah  boys  were  admitted  at  the 
High-school.  The  other  boys  rebelled,  and  forty  left 
the  school.  After  a  time,  however,  twenty  returned, 
and  the  spell  was  broken. 


CASTE.  35  J 

The  missionaries  are  not  obliged  to  act  with  the 
same  rigor.  Their  relation  to  the  natives,  and  parti- 
cularly to  their  converts,  is  a  private  relation,  and 
much  of  their  success  will  depend  on  their  discretion 
in  dealing  with  native  prejudices.  A  Hindu  who  em- 
braces Christianity  loses  caste,  and  is  cut  off  from 
all  his  friends.  But  if  he  was  brought  up  as  a  gentle- 
man, it  is  not  fair  that,  as  a  Christian,  he  should  be 
forced  to  mix  with  other  converts,  his  inferiors  in  birth, 
education,  and  manners.  Much  offense  has  been  given 
by  the  missionaries  by  maintaining  that  no  one  can  be 
a  true  convert  who  refuses  to  eat  and  drink  with  his 
fellow-converts.  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat 
and  drink."  The  social  position  of  the  converts  in 
India  will  be  for  a  long  time  a  stumbling-block.  Na- 
tive converts  are  not  admitted  to  English  caste,  and  it 
is  the  dread  of  this  isolated  position  which  acts  most 
powerfully  against  conversion.  The  Mohammedans 
admit  Hindu  converts  into  their  own  society,  and  treat 
every  Mussulman  on  terms  of  equality.  Christian  so- 
ciety in  India  is  hardly  able  to  do  this,  and  it  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  even  the  purest  religion  will  be  able  to 
overcome  that  deep-rooted  feeling  of  caste  which  di- 
vided the  Arya  from  the  Dasyu,  and  which  still  divides 
the  white  European  from  the  dark  Asiatic.  Measures 
must  be  adopted  to  give  to  the  Hindus  who  accept 
Christianity  something  in  place  of  the  caste  which  they 
lose.  In  a  certain  sense  no  man  ought  to  be  without 
caste,  without  friends  who  take  care  of  him,  without 
companions  who  watch  him,  without  associates  whose 
good  opinion  he  values,  without  companions  with  whom 
he  can  work  for  a  common  cause.  The  healthy  life  of 
a  political  body  can  only  be  supported  by  means  of  a* 


352  CASTE. 

sociations,  circles,  leagues,  guilds,  clans,  clubs,  or  par- 
ties ;  and  in  a  country  where  caste  takes  the  place  of 
all  this,  the  abolition  of  caste  would  be  tantamount  to 
a  complete  social  disorganization.  Those  who  know 
the  Hindus  best  are  the  least  anxious  to  see  them  with- 
out caste.  Colonel  Sleeman  remarks  :  — 

"  What  chiefly  prevents  the  spread  of  Christianity 
is  the  dread  of  exclusion  from  caste  and  all  its  privi- 
leges, and  the  utter  hopelessness  of  their  ever  finding 
any  respectable  circle  of  society  of  the  adopted  relig- 
ion, which  converts,  or  would  be  converts,  to  Chris- 
tianity now  everywhere  feel.  Form  such  circles  for 
them ;  make  the  members  of  these  circles  excel  in  the 
exertion  of  honest  and  independent  industry.  Let 
those  who  rise  to  eminence  in  them  feel  that  they  are 
considered  as  respectable  and  important  in  the  social 
system  as  the  servants  of  Government,  and  converts 
will  flock  around  you  from  all  parts  and  from  all  classes 
of  the  Hindu  community.  I  have,  since  I  have  been 
in  India,  had,  I  may  say,  at  least  a  score  of  Hindu 
grass-cutters  turn  Mussulmans,  merely  because  the 
grooms  and  the  other  grass-cutters  of  my  establish- 
ment happened  to  be  of  that  religion,  and  they  could 
neither  eat,  drink,  nor  smoke  with  them.  Thousands 
of  Hindus,  all  over  India,  become  every  year  Mus- 
sulmans from  the  same  motive,  and  we  do  not  get 
the  same  number  of  converts  to  Christianity,  merely 
because  we  cannot  offer  them  the  same  advantages.  I 
am  persuaded  that  a  dozen  such  establishments  as  that 
of  Mr.  Thomas  Ashton,  of  Hyde,  as  described  by  a 
physician  of  Manchester,  and  noticed  in  Mr.  Baines' 
admirable  work  on  the  cotton  manufactures  of  Great 
Britain  (page  447),  would  do  more  in  the  way  of  con- 


CASTE.  353 

version  among  the  people  of  India  than  has  ever  yet 
been  done  by  all  the  religious  establishments,  or  ever 
will  be  done  by  them,  without  some  such  aid." 

Caste,  which  has  hitherto  proved  an  impediment  to 
the  conversion  of  the  Hindus,  may  in  future  become 
one  of  the  most  powerful  engines  for  the  conversion 
not  merely  of  individuals,  but  of  whole  classes  of  In- 
dian society.  Caste  cannot  be  abolished  in  India,  and 
to  attempt  it  would  be  one  of  the  most  hazardous  opera- 
tions that  was  ever  performed  on  a  living  political 
body.  As  a  religious  institution  caste  will  die ;  as  a 
social  institution  it  will  live  and  improve.  Let  the 
/Sudras,  or,  as  they  are  called  in  Tamil,  the  Petta 
Pittei,  the  children  of  the  house,  grow  into  free  labor- 
ers, the  Vaisyas  into  wealthy  merchants,  the  Kshatriyas 
into  powerful  barons,  and  let  the  Brahmans  aspire  to 
the  position  of  that  intellectual  aristocracy  which  is  the 
only  true  aristocracy  in  truly  civilized  countries,  and 
the  four  castes  of  the  Veda  will  not  be  out  of  date  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  nor  out  of  place  in  a  Christian 
country.  But  all  this  must  be  the  work  of  time. 
«*  The  teeth,"  as  a  native  writer,  says,  "  fall  off  them- 
selves in  old  age,  but  it  is  painful  to  extract  them  in 
youth." 

April,  1858. 

VOL.  n.  * 


INDEX. 


The  numerals  1.  and  ii.  refer  to  the  volumes  ;  the  figures  to  the  pagM 
Pr.  =  Preface. 


ABA 

ABACUS,  ii.  285,  286,  288,  289, 
290,  291;  Mensa  Pythagorea 
called  — ,  285 ;  Pythagorean  — , 
286 ;  suppressed  by  the  Arabs,  289, 
291. 

Abel,  servant,  i.  353. 

Abd-allah,  servant  of  God,  i.  353. 

Abhidharma,  by-law,  i.  193,223,  280, 
281  n.  1  ;  metaphysics  of  the 
Buddhists,  22«,  280;"compiled  by 
Ka-syapa,  280;  propounded  by 
Buddha,  when  he  was  fifty-one 
years  old,  281  n.  1. 

Abipones  in  South  America,  Cou- 
vade,  among  the  — ,  ii.  278. 

Abraham,  Abram,  Pr.  xi.,  xii., 
xxviii.;  i.  45,  59,  148,  149,  150, 
156, 157,  343,  363-70,  372;  tempta- 
tion of—,  59 ;  faith  of—,  365, 367; 
—  friend  of  God,  367;  God  of—, 
368. 

Absolute,  i.  248,  259 ;  forms  of  the 
— ,  249. 

A-buddha,  not  enlightened,  i.  228. 

Abu  .lafar  Mohammed  Ben  Musa 
Alkharizmi,  ii.  285,  294;  trans- 
lator of  the  Siddhanta  of  Brahma- 
gupta,  289;  this  translation,  the 
"  Great  Sindhind,"  translated 
again  into  Latin,  285. 

Abulfara.9,  old  Arabic  prayer  men- 
tioned by  — ,  i.  372. 

Acacia  Suma,  or  /Sami,  ii.  201. 

Achaemenian,  i.  79,  85,  86,  89,  95, 
119,  161,  260;  —  dynasty,  260;  — 
inscriptions,  89,  119,  260;  lan- 
guage of  the  — ,  79,  85. 

Acheroo  ii.  70  n.  2. 


S3 

Achilles,  ii.  106, 107. 
Acosta,  i.  318;    Historia  natural  3 

moral.    —    Historia    del    Nuevc 

Orbe,  ii.  112  n.  1. 
Adam.  i.  150. 151,  347.  354;  ii.  253) 

—  identified  with  Yima,  i.  150. 

—  son  of  God,  i.  347. 

Addik  (American  reindeer),  clan  of 

the,  i.  313. 
Adelard  of  Bath,  ii.  291. 

a£eX/io;,  a£eX^ij,  ii.  23. 

Adelung's  Mithridates,  i.  21. 

Adeps,  d  in  — ,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

Ader  Berzin,  well  acquainted  with 

the  ancient  poems  of  the  Persians, 

i.  95. 
Adhvaryus  (assistants)  =  Rathwis- 

kare,  i.  105. 
Aditi,  the  sun  called  face  of  — ,  ii. 

85. 
Aditya,  i.  44,  47;  ii.  131,  330. 

—  ttie  sun,  ii.  131 ;  class  of  gods,  i. 
47;  ii.  330:  —  created  by  Brah- 
man, ii.  330. 

Adjetatig  of  Wabojeeg,  i.  313. 
Adonia  (Lord),  Deity  m  Phenicia,  i. 

360 

Adrammelech,  worshippers  of.  341. 
sedes,  temple,  and  house,  i.  237. 
(ic'Xioi,  iii.  29,  31. 
/Kuliuns.  Greek  traditions  about  th« 

— ,  i.  327. 
JEoVic,  ii.  51. 
tequor,  ii.  47,  79. 

aepo-o,  ii.  87  n.  1. 

tea,  seris,  ii.  45. 

ASshma  daeva,  the  Zend  spirit  of 
concupiscence  (Asmodeus),  i.  145 


356 


INDEX. 


JES 
^Esir,  might  of  Odin  and  the.  ii.  234, 

238. 

Ji>op,  ii.  230. 

Aethlios,  king  of  Elis,  ii.  78. 
Aetius,  ii.  110. 

Africa,  East  roast  of,  i.  51 ;  ii.  208. 
South  Africa,  beast  fables,  Rfi_v- 
nard  the  Fox  in  — ,  210  n.  1,  267. 
Couvade  in  Africa,  279;  Devil 
painted  white  in  — ,  281. 
African,  ii.  83,  208,215.  Betshuana, 
an  —  dialect.  83. 

niya,  she-goat,  ii.  42. 

A^atasatru,  murderer  of  his  father, 
the  king  of  Magadha,  i.  213;  — 
king  of  Kasi,  ii.  336. 

Agathon,  ii.  14. 

Age,  four  ages  of  the  world  of  the 
Parsis,  Brahmans,  i.  149,  150, 151. 

—  in  Genesis,  they  never  assumed 
the  form  of  a  theory,  i.  150;  the 
Greeks  believed  really  in  five,  and 
not  in  four,  i.  151 ;  Satyayuga, 
mythical  age,  ii.  354;  Treta  age, 
fi.  380. 

ager,  ii.  43. 

AgeMlaos,  Leader  of  the  people,  i. 
259. 

Aftlaophamus,  by  Lobeck,  ii.  14  n.  4. 

Agni.  fire,  i.  27^  28,  33,  34,  37,  68, 
235,  238,  354,  362,  372;  ii.  35  n. 
1;  101,  131,133-136,174-176,333, 
834;  hymn  to  — ,  i.  33,  34;  horses 

n  of—  ii.  133. 

Agnidhra,  i.  106. 

Agniminrlha,  i.  106. 

agouti  teeth,  ii.  277. 

»#ra,  field,  ager,  ii.  43. 

Agrippa, Menenius,  "the  dispute  be- 
tween the  belly  and  the  other 
members  of  the  bodv"  told  by — . 
ii.  231. 

ayoos,  ii    43. 

ah,  root  — ,  i.  156. 

ahan,  day,  ii.  89, 135. 

Alinna,  name  for  dawn,  !.  235;  ii. 
90. 

A  barman,  i.  136. 

aheneus  (ahes),  ii.  45. 

ahi,  serpent,  i.  99;  ii.  42, 167. 

ahmi  (Zend),  I  am,  i.  124;  ii.  18. 

Alirens,  Dial.  Gneo.  ii.  P3  n.  1.  De 
Dialecto  Dorica,  ii.  128, 165  n.  1. 
171  n.  1. 

Ahritian,  the  evil  power,  i.  150. 151, 
152, 170;  ii.  167. 


ALQ 

Ahriman  i.  e.  ahgro  mainyus,  i.  152 

—  Azhi  dahaka,  offspring  of  — ,  ii. 
167. 

ahu,  lord,  i.  156. 

Ahura, »'.  e.  living,  i.  124;  creator  of 

the  world,  i.  152;  —  means  lord  as 

well  as  aliu,  i.  156. 
Ahura  mazda,  i.  24,  124,  138. 

—  the  supreme  deity  of  Zoroaster,  i. 
24,25. 

—  communication  of  —  to  Zoroaster, 
i.  124. 

Ait/a,  the  son  of  Wa,  ii,  101. 

AiSr/s,  ii.  182. 

aighe  (Irish),  ii.  42. 

ain-lif,  ii.  51. 

Ainos,  The  —  or  Hairy  Men  (A.  S. 

Bickmore),  ii.  277  n.  1. 
ains,  ii.  51. 
airgiod,  ii.  45. 
Airvana  vaeya  (the  seed  of  the  Ar^ 

yan),  i.  146, 147, 157. 
ais,  ii.  45. 
Aisvarikas,  followers  of  Buddha,  i 

230. 

Aitareya-Brahmana,  i.  101-113. 
*;$,  ii.  42. 

Ajdahak,  serpent,  ii.  168. 
11x017,  ii.  70. 
Akrisios,  ii.  165. 
akr-s,  ii.  43. 

Akudunnia,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Albiruni,  ii.  292. 
aX«/>a,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Alexander  the  Great,  i.  14,  62,  66. 

80,  88,  171,  233,  289;  ii.  37  n.  1. 

—  conquest  and  invasion  of  India,  i. 
80.  233,  289. 

—  Zoroastrian   books   destroyed  by 
— ,  i.  88, 171. 

Alexandria,  Pr.  xxix.;  i.  132,  149. 
230  n.  2,  294,  345;   ii.  286,  290. 

—  contact  between  Jews  and  Greeks 
at,  i.  132;  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  Avesta  at  the  same  time  trans- 
lated into  Greek  at  — ,  i.  149. 

—  Clemens  of,  Pr.    xxix.:   i.  230 
n.  2. 

—  merchants  of  U^ayini  attracted 
towards,  ii.  290. 

"AXef.KOKo?,    name   of    Apollo    and 

Zeus,  ii.  88. 
Alfred,  Anglo-Saxon  of,  i.  21;  ii. 

249. 
Algoritimi  de  numero  Indorum,  ii 

285. 


INDEX. 


357 


AH 
Alilat,  translated  by  Herodotus  by 

Oupafiv;,  i.  372. 
Alkimenes,  ii.  170. 
Alkinoos.  paince  of —  ii.  9. 
Allah,  i.  3C7,  -372. 
Allahabad,  ii  114,  123. 
A  Hat,  i.  37-2. 
Alltadir,  the  father  of  All,  ii.  190, 

Allophylic,   or  Turanian   tribes,   ii. 

253. 

Almfimun,  Khalif,  ii.  285,  289. 
Almokafta's  work  Kalila  Dimna.  ii 

225. 

Alom,  i.  329. 
Alphabet,  Chinese,  i.  290,  297. 

—  Greek,  used  for  numerical  pur- 
poses, ii.  294. 

—  Sanskrit,  i   291. 
Al  Uzza,  i,  372. 
ama-ad,  ii.  44. 

Amalaberg,   niece  of  Theodoric.  ii. 

110. 

Ambagapitva,  i.  193. 
America,  Central,  i.  311,  317,  322;  ii. 

268,  269. 

—  North,  i.  310,  311,  316,  317;   ii. 
264,  271,  279. 

—  Russian,  i.  334. 

—  South,  i.   317,  322;  ii.   264,  278. 
279. 

—  ancient  inhabitants,  natives,  abo- 
riginal races  of,  i.  322,  323.  327. 

—  Spanish  Conquest  of,  i.  236,  324 
n.  1. 

—  Popul  Vuh  (history  of  the  civilized 
races  in  C.  A.),  i.  309-336. 

—  hieroglyphics  in   N.   A.,  i.  310; 
scattered  ruins  of  ancient  — ,  i.  320. 

—  scrawls  of  the  wandering  tribes  of 
N.  A.,  i.  313. 

—  Bridge  of  Hell  imagined  by  the 
natives  of  N.  and  S.  A.,  ii.  264, 
271. 

•-  Couvade  in  N.  and  S.  A.,  ii.  278, 

279. 
•  -  Popular  Traditions  of  C.  A.,  ii. 

268. 

—  Superstitions  of  the  Sioux  Indians 
of  N.  A.,  ii.  271. 

—  Supposed    migration    from     the 
Northeast  of  Asia,  to  the  North- 
west of  A.,  ii.  271. 

American    antiquities,  i.   320,    321, 
323. 


AP 

American,  hieroglyphic  manuscripts 
ot  the,  i.  321. 

—  languages,  i.  322;  life  little  valued 
by  some  —  tribes,  i.  57;  Maimscrit 
1  ictograpliique  Amlricain,  i.  309 

P'  2  :,  vV-,'ths  of  ~  ^quity,  «* 
Popol  Vuh. 

—  pictography,  j.  311. 

—  traditions, "i.  328;  ii.  270. 
Amorite,  gods  of  the  — ,  i.  363. 
Amphiirite,  ii.  32. 
Amphitryo,  ii.  111. 

Amrita,  Soma  or — ,  ii.  202. 
Amulius,  ii.  164. 
A/a  •«<)?,  ii.  186. 
Ananda,  compiler  of  the  first  Basket 

(the   Sutras)  of  the  Tripi<aka,  i. 

280. 
Anathapiw/ada,  i.  203,  213. 

aoaroAai,  ii.  79. 

av&pa&e\ '.OS  apjpa&X^i),  ii.  29. 

Andvari,  the  dwarf,  ii.  108. 

d-Ki^io?,  ii.  31. 

Angiras,  divine  tribe,  ii.  200. 
angi-s,  ii.  42 

Angles,  and  Saxons,  ii.  188. 
Anglo-Saxon,  i.  8,  21;  ii.  25,  27,  29 

42,  43,  48,  90,  119,  187,  188,  236, 

244,  255. 

—  of  Altied,  i.  21. 
anguilla,  ii.  44. 
anguis,  ii.  42. 
angury-s,  ii.  42. 
Anhuma  (Ormazd),  i.  136. 
Animals,  ii.  41,  42,  210— fables,  ii. 

2 10 ;  names  of  domestic — ,  ii.  41, 42. 

Aniruddha,  ii.  136. 

An-isvara,  lord-less,  atheistic,  i.  279. 

Anna,  i.  310. 

Annamelech,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 

Anquetil  Duperron,  i.  79,  80,  89, 
117,  119,  135,  143,  146,  160;  ii. 
133  n.  1;  first  translator  of  tha 
Zend-Avesta,  i.  79;  this  transla- 
tion made  with  the  assistance  of 
Dustoor  Darab,  i.  119. 

anser,  ii.  42. 

antarikshapra,  ii.  100. 

Antigone,  ii.  138  n.  1. 

Anvari  Suhaili,  by  Husain  Vaiz,  ii. 
2-25,  226,  230. 

—  translated  by  Professor  Eastwick, 
ii.  226. 

Anvata/iplaksha,  lake,  ii.  101. 
ap,"apas,  i.  27;  ii.  79,  200. 


858 


INDEX. 


APA 

A pate,  or  fraud,  ii.  76,  or  Nyx,  ii. 
76. 

Apavarga,  release,  i,  279. 

Apestak,  Fehlevi  for  Avesta  (au- 
thorized text),  i.  120. 

Apestako,  Semitic  form  of  Avesta,  i. 
90. 

Aphrodite,  ii.  100,  136. 

Apices,  given  in  Boethius,  ii.  287. 

Apollo,  Apollon,  i.  30,  237,  239,  355, 
360;  ii.  66,  68,  73,  83,  88,  92,  93, 
99  n.  1,  111,  112,  146,  156,  162, 
232. 

—  A>jAios,  ii.  73. 

—  Delphian — ,  ii.  111. 

—  Etymology  of  A.  not  yet  found,  ii. 
156. 

—  A"<ojyeV>)9,  son  of  Light,  ii.  73 ;  ora- 
cle of  A.  at  Pytho,  ii.  68. 

—  myth  of  A.  and  Daphne,  ii.  92, 93, 
156. 

Apollonic  theology,  ii.  146. 
Apollonius  Rhodius,  ii.  273. 

—  Couvade    mentioned    in    A.    R. 
Argonautica,  ii.  273  n.  1. 

Apophasis,  daughter  of  Epimetheus, 

ii.  70. 

Apsaras,  ii.  200. 
Aptya,  i.  96. 
Aquilonia,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
tar,  root — ,  ii.  42  (for  ploughing),  136 

n.  2, 138  n.  2. 
ar  ( Gaelic ),  ii.  43. 
Arab,  i  92, 94, 160,  338,  340,  371;  ii. 

225,  284,  292. 

—  conquest  of  Persia  by  the  Arabs, 
i.  92,  93;  ii.  225. 

Arab  branch  of  the  Semitic  family,  i. 
340. 

—  in  Africa  and  Spain,  ii.  285,  286. 

—  of  Bagdad,  ii.  292. 

—  Figures  borrowed  from  the,  ii.  284. 

—  initiated  into  the  science  of  In- 
dian ciphering  under  Khalif  Al- 
mamun,  ii.  285. 

—  Figures  used    by   the  Arabs    in 
Africa  and  Spaing  ii.  285,  286. 

—  have  two  sets  of  figures,  ii.  287. 

—  adopted    the    Coptic    figures    in 
Egypt,  ii.  288. 

—  adopted  in  Spain,  as  they  did  in 
Greece    and    Kg.ypt,    the    figures 
there  in  use,  ii.  289. 

Arabia,  i.  91,  366,  372. 

—  idolatry  of  the  Semitic  tribes  of. 
L366. 


ARJ 

Arabia,  the  Semitic  inhabitants  of 
Arabia  worshipped  not  only  gods, 
but  goddesses  also,  i.  372. 

Arabian  dialect,  ii.  8. 

—  Nights,  i.  331. 

—  Pre-  Mohammedan    ideas    of   the 
Nomads  of  the  Arabian  peninsula, 
Pr.  xiii. 

Arabic,  Old  A.  prayer,  i.  372. 

—  figures,  ii.  288  sqq. 

—  studv  of  A-  and  mathematics  in 
Spain,  ii.  291. 

—  treatises  on  arithmetic,  ii.  289. 
dp<£x>"),  ii  45. 

arad,  aradyr,  ii.  43. 

aradar,  ii.  48. 

Arago,  Freycinet  and  Arago's  Voj- 

age  to  the  Eastern  Ocean,  i.  312. 
Aramean  dialect,  ii.  8. 
aranea,  ii.  45. 
Aranyaka,  i.  71. 
Ararat,  i.  155. 
arare,  ii.  42. 
aratrum,  ii.  43. 
Arawaks  of  Surinam,  ii.  276. 
Araxes,  i.  146,  147. 154. 
Arbaces,  the  Meek',  i.  100. 
Arbhu,  ii.  126. 
Arbuda,  ii.  178. 
Archipelago,Couvade  in  the  Eastern, 

ii.  279. 

Arda  Viraf,  i.  88. 
Ardeshir,  inscription  of,  i.  89. 
ardhr,  ii.  43. 

Ares,  ii.  70  n.  1.  (By  H.  D.  Muller) 
arg,  i.  23  n.  2. 
argentum,  ii.  46 
Argonauts,  ii.  162. 
Argos,  ii.  Ill,  112,  154, 170. 

—  royal  family  of,  ii.  111. 
Argos,  worship  of  Here  in,  ii.  lli. 

—  Tales  of  Thebes  and,  ii.  154. 
upy  -pos,  ii.  45. 

Arhat  (rahat),  i.  285. 
Ariosto,  ii.  131  n.  1. 
Aristotle,  i.  90,  185,236,  313;  ii.  6, 
78  n.  1. 

—  Metaphysics  of,  ii.  78  n.  1. 

—  Politica'of,  i.  313. 

—  Saint-Ililaire,  translator  of,  i.  185 
Arithmetic,  ii.  284,  289.  29Ct  291. 

—  Arabic  treatises  on,  ii.  289. 

—  the  Arabs  received  their  —  from 
India  directly,  290. 

—  work  of  Philip  Caiander  on,  284 
arjaii,  ii.  43. 


INDEX. 


859 


ARK 

irkla-s,  ii.  43. 

VTTO«,  ii.  42. 

uporpoi',  ii.  43. 

lipouv,  ii    42. 

i<po  po,  ii.  4-3. 

Arran,  i.  140-149,  156. 

art,  ii.  42. 

Artaxerxes  II.,  i.  88. 

artha,  i.  215:  ii.  138  n.  1 

Arthur,  stories  of,  i.  195. 

iirti,  ii.  43. 

Aru;/a,  ii.  133  n.  1. 

Arus,  ii.  133  n.  1. 

Arusha  (the  younir  sun,  the  child  of 

Dyaus),  ii  133,  134,  135,  136. 
Arushi  (cow),  ii.  131-136. 
arvas  (N.  arvan),  Fern,   arushi,   ii. 

13-2,  133. 
arvat  (N.  arva),  Fein,  arvati,  ii.  130, 

131,  132,  136,  137  n.  2.  138  n.  2. 
urvuin,  i:.  43. 
Arva,  i.  61 ;  ii.  323-325. 
Arva,  i.  203,  296;  ii.  315,  318,  320- 

323,  329,  337,  351. 

—  Distinction  of  color  between  the 
Aryas  and  the  Dasyus,  ii  321. 

—  originally  only  two  castes,  Aryas 
and  non-Aryas,  or  the  bright  and 
the  dark  races,  ii.  321. 

—  oiilv  admitted  to  the  sacrifices,  ii. 
,  330." 

Arvabhatfa,  Dr.   Bhao  Daji,  on  the 
,  ageof,ii.  289  n.  1. 
Aryaman,  ii.  333. 
Arvan  civilization,  ii.  29. 

—  color,  ii.  176,  327. 

—  conquerors  of  India,  ii.  172. 

—  customs,  ii.  260,  261. 

—  dialects,  ii.  19,  23,  24,  30,  41,  125. 

—  fables,  ii.  231,  243 

—  family,  i.  61,  65,  81;  ii.  22,  29,  32, 
39.  47,  50,  148, 195,  231,  245, 253, 
258,  259. 

—  folklore     of    the  —  nations,     ii. 
195. 

—  kingship,  and  kingly  government 
among  the  —  nations,  ii.  255,  256. 

—  mythology,  ii.  83,  88,  93, 138, 139, 
257. 

—  numerals,  ii.  49-51. 

—  separation  (dispersion)  of  the  — 
tribes,  ii.  150,  179,  224,  229,  260. 

—  the  Veda,  the  theogony  of  the  — 
races,  ii.  76. 

—  words,  ii.  51,  54,  130. 
ts,  to  be,  i.  156;  ii.  18. 


A  SB 

assail,  ii.  42. 

asaiikumaryam,  ii.  173. 

Asbjonisen,  Mr.,  ii.  217. 

ascendo,  i.  83  n.  1. 

Asclt-pias  Acida,  ii.  202. 

Ascoli,  Krammeuti  Linguistic!  by,  ii. 

149  n.  1. 
Ash,    Ash-tree,    ii.    193,    201,    202. 

204. 

—  healing  virtue  of  the  ash,  ii.  204. 

—  Vggdrasil,  ii.  202. 

Asha  vahista,   the    best    purity,  i. 

124. 

Ash  dfihak.  i.  97. 
Ashima,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 
Ashtaroth,  worshippers  of,  341. 
ashlau,  ii.  51. 
asi,  sword,  ii.  46. 
Asia,  Central,  i.  189,  210  n.  1,  232, 

243,  206. 

—  barbarians  of  C.  A.,  i.  243. 

—  civilization  among  the  tribes  of 
C.  A.,  i.  266. 

—  intellectual   intercourse  between 
the     Indian     peninsula    and    the 
northern  continent  of,  i.  255. 

—  languages  of,  i.  22. 

—  Migration  of  tales  from  —  to  the 
North  of  Europe,  ii.  221. 

—  Minor,  ii.  46. 

Asiatic  Researches,  i.  190,  279  n.  1, 
281  n.  1;  ii.  33  n.  1. 

—  Society  of  Bengal,  i.  188,  296;  ii. 
294. 

Calcutta,  i.  196;  ii  294,  304. 

London,  i.  188, 197,  277;  ii.33 

n.  1,  289  n.  1,  294. 
Paris,  i.  188, 197,  277;  ii.  168 

n.  2,  287. 
asila-s,  ii.  42. 
asilu,  ii.  42. 
asi  n  us,  ii.  42. 
asm  ad,  ii.  27. 
asmi,  ii.  18,  61. 

Asmodeus  (Eshem-dev),  i.  145. 
A*oka,  Fr.  xxiv.;  i.  14.  194,  220,221, 

253,  2i'4,  21)5.  297,  '299. 

—  the Constantine  of  India, Pr.  xxiv.; 
i.  14. 

—  the  Buddhist  Constantine,  i.  220. 

—  Edicts   of  A.    preserved   on   th« 
rocks  of  Dhnuli,  (iirnar,  and  Ka- 
purdigiri,  i.  2.')3,  2U4. 

—  Sanskrit  of  the  time  of,  i.  297. 
aspa,  ii.  42. 

asm,  ii.  89. 


860 


INDEX. 


ASS 
Assyrian,  i.  5,  141. 

—  dynasties,  i.  5. 

—  invasion  into  Persia,  i.  99. 
Astagiri  mountain,  i.  287. 
Asterodia.  n*me  of  Selene,  ii.  79. 
acTTtp  Jfiv,  ii.  65. 

<j<rT  •,  ii.  40. 

Astyages  (corruption  of  Azhi  da- 
haka),  ii.  104,  167,  168. 

asu,  breath,  i.  156;  ii.  61. 

a.-iu  (a.sva),  ii.  42. 

asurya,  ii.  175. 

asva,  ii.  42,  99  n.  1  (tjriros). 

asva,  the  mare,  name  for  Dawn,  ii. 

.129. 

Asvalavana,  i.  14,  106  n.  1. 

Asvattha,  ii.  201,  202,  203,  205. 

Asvins,  the  two,  ii.  91. 

asyn,  ii.  42. 

aszua,  fern.,  ii.  42. 

Ate,  ii.  70. 

atliair,  ii.  21. 

Atharva-veda,  i.  8,  9, 15,  40,  47,  70 
n.  1,  72;  ii.  134  n.  1,  203,  314;  the 
Ath.  intended  for  the  Brahman,  or 
overseer  of  the  sacrifice,  i.  9. 

—  Hymn  taken  from  the  Ath  ,  i.  40. 

—  Mystical  formulas  of  the,  ii.  203. 

—  Ath.  of  later  origin,  ii.  314. 
Athene,  ii.  93  n  1. 

—  myth  of,  ii.  93  n.  1. 
'A0OT,  ii.  179. 
Athenodoros,  ii.  70  n.  1. 
Athens,  i.  3,  345;  ii.2,341. 

—  Pantheon  of,  i.  3. 
Athwya,  i.  96,  176. 
Atithi'gva,  i.  32. 
Atiya0a,  priest  of,  ii.  326. 
Atll,  ii.  109,  110. 
Atman  (self),  i.  69;  ii.  316. 

—  Atmanas    tush/is    (man's    own 
judgment),  last  source  of  law,  ii. 
316. 

Atropatene,  i.  146. 

Atropos,  ii.  152. 

Attakathas,   commentaries  brought 

by  Mahinda  to  Ceylon,  i.  194. 
Attica,  ii.  88. 
Attila,  ii.  110,  112. 
Aubin,  i.  320,  321. 
Aucassir   ii.  273. 
Aufi-echt,  ii.  27  n.  2, 185  n.  3. 
auh.-an,  ii.  42. 
avu,  ii.  137  n.  2. 

Auramazda,  Auramazdis  ..  12?  159. 
ivpiov,  ii.  137  n.  2 


BAL 

Aumavabha,  ii.  174. 

Aurora  (UshAsa),  i.  78;  ii.  46,  128, 

132  n.  1,  1 J7  n.  2,  226. 
aurum,  ii.  40,  137  n.  2. 
Aurva,  last  of  the  Bhrigus,  ii.  339. 
Aus  (present),  i.  353. 
Aus-alla,  i.  353. 
ausha,  ii.  136. 
Australia,  i.  42  n.  1;  ii.  29,  260,  281. 

—  The  Aborigines  of  A.  (Oldtield) 
i.  42  n.  1. 

—  Mourning  in  A.,  ii.  281. 
Austrasia,  ii.  110. 

Austrasian,  the  Nibelunge  derived  by 
some  from  the  A.  history,  ii.  111. 

ouTOX'Soves,  ii    6!l. 

Auxiliary  verb-!,  ii.  17.  18,  60. 
Avadana  (parables),  i.  292. 
avastha,  i.  120. 

Avesta,  i.  79-100, 120,  121, 122,  140- 
157, 173. 

—  (avastha),  sacred  text,  i.  120,  122. 

—  Zend,  proper  title  of  Z.-A.,  i.  120, 
121. 

—  The  Zend-Avesta,  i.  79-100. 

—  Genesis  and  the  Zend-Avesta,  i. 
140-157. 

—  A.  uud  die  Genesis  by  Spiegel,  i. 
143. 

Avi,  ii.  42. 

Avidya  (ignorance),  i.  248. 
avi  str,  ii.  42. 
avoir,  ii.  63. 
avunculus,  ii.  31. 
avus,  ii.  31. 
axe,  ii.  46. 
ayas,  ii.  45. 
Ayu,  i.  32. 
Ayus,  ii.  124. 
Azdehak,  ii.  168 

Azhi  dahaka,  i.  97,  98,  99, 152;  ii. 
167,  168. 

—  Zohak  identified  by  Burnouf  with 
— ,  i.  97. 

—  Astyages    corruption  of  A.,   ii. 
167. 

Aztec,  i.  309,  334. 

BAAL  (Bel)  Lord,  i.  341,  359,  360 
364,  371,  373. 

—  servants  of  B.,  i.  371. 

—  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 
Baal-peor,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 
Baal-zebub,  worshippers  of,  i,  341. 
Babel,  Tower  of,  i.  333. 
balbutire  ii  172. 


INDEX. 


361 


BAB 

Babylon,  Pr.  xii.;  i.  5,  22,  113,  142, 
267,  374. 

—  languages  and  ideas  of  B.,  i.  142. 

—  cuneiform  inscriptions  of,  i.  374. 
Babylonia,  i.  89,  91;  ii.  3. 

—  Semitic  influence  of  B.,  i.  89. 

—  Literature  of  B.,  ii.  3. 
Bacchus,  i.  372. 
Bacon,  works  of,  ii.  3 
Bactria,  i.  2U6,  267,  271. 
Bactrian  fire-worship,  i.  267. 
Bactro-Pali  inscriptions,  ii.  293. 
baddlia  (conditioned),  i.  225. 
Baghdad,  i.  92,  93;  ii.  285,  291. 

—  Arabs  of  B  ,  ii.  292. 

—  Indian  embassy  at  B.,  ii.  288. 
Balaka,  Gargva,  the  sou  of  B.,  ii. 

336. 

Balder,  Baldr,    i.  240;    ii.  106,107, 
190. 

—  death  of  B.,  i.  240. 
Balkh,  i.  147,  149,  267. 
Ballantvne,  Dr.,  i.  103,  224  n.  1. 
Banier,  Abbe,  i.  147. 

Baptist  missionaries  at  Serampore.  i. 

301. 

Baptiste,  T.,  i.  316. 
bani,  ex  nihilo  creavit,  i.  132. 
barbara,  ii.  172.  173. 
barbarata,  ii.  173. 
Barbarian.  Pr.  xxix.;  i.  181;  ii.  5, 

44,  324. 

0ap,6'apo?,  ii.  172,  173. 

fSap  >apd/>a>'Oi,  Kape?,  ii.  173. 

Barbarossa,  Emperor,  ii.  169. 

barbarottha  (Sandal- wood),  ii.  172. 

Barhain,  Francis,  i.  276,  282. 

ffmnXeuei,  >)^«K  — ,  ii.  75. 

Basilius,  Pr.  xx. 

Basques,  Couvade  among  the,  ii.  273. 

Bastian,  Dr.,  ii.  262. 

Basuto  legend,  ii.  210. 

tfa'lo?,  ii.  47  n.  1. 

Baudiha  (Buddha),  i.  219,  281. 

Bear,  ii.  42,  230. 

—  tha  Bear  and  the  Gardener,  ii. 
230. 

Be'arn,  Couvade  in,  ii.  273. 

Bt-asts,  different  names  of  the  wild, 

ii.  41,42. 
Becker,   die    inschriftlichen    Ueber- 

reste  der  Reltischen  Sprache,  i.  23 

n.  1. 
Beel-samin    (Lord    of   Heaven),    i. 

359. 
Behar  or  Magadha,  i.  211. 


BIIA 

Behring's  Straits,  ii.  270. 
behter,  ii.  243. 

Being,  Absolute,  i.  225,  227,  247 
251. 

—  Divine,  i.  251,  279,  329. 

—  Immaterial  supernatural,  i.  350. 
Beitrage  zur  vergleichenden  Sprach- 

forschung,  i.  23  n.  1. 

Bel  (Baal),  image  of,  Pr.  xii. ;  wor- 
shippers of,  i.  341. 

Belial,  son  of,  ii.  150» 

believe,  to,  ii.  257. 

Belile  et  Dimne,  ii.  226. 

Bellerophon,  ii.  170-186. 

Bellerophontes,  ii.  170, 183. 

Belleros,  ii.  171,  177,  178. 

Belly,  dispute  between  the  —  and 
the  other  members  of  the  body,  ii. 
231. 

Bel  us,  i.  91. 

Benares,  Pr.  xvi.,  xxv. ;  i.  103, 116, 
212.  224,  258. 

—  Principal  seat  of  learning  in  In- 
dia, i.  212. 

—  Sanskrit  College  of—,  i.  103,  224. 
Benbecula,  ii.  239,  241. 

Benfey,  i.  97;  ii.  186  n.  1,  242. 

—  Orient  and  Occident,  edited  by, 
ii.  186  n.  1. 

—  researches  of,  ii.  242. 

Bengal,  Annals  of  Rural  B.,  Pr. 
xviii.  n.  1. 

—  Asiatic  Society  of  B.,  i.  188,  290. 

—  Journal  of  the  A.  S.,  ii.  287  n.  1, 
294. 

—  three  fourths  of  the  Brahmans  in 
B.  are  the  servants  of  others,  ii. 
348 

Bengali,  i.  116;  ii.  221,  320. 

—  B.  is  a  Sanskrit  dialect,  ii.  320. 
/?eV0os,  ii.  47  n.  1. 

Beowulf,  ii.  187. 

Berghaus.  Physical  Atlas  of,  i.  158, 

211  n.  1. 

Bern  (Verona),  Dietrich  von,  ii    lift 
Berosus,  i.  321. 
Bethel,  i.  364. 
Betshuana,  ii.  83. 
better,  ii.  243. 
bha-,  with  vi-,  ii.  99. 
bhadras  ii.  129. 
Bhagavadirita.  ii.  336. 
Bhagavat,  i.  203,  204,  286. 
Bhagavata-1'urana,  ii.  133  n.  1. 
Bhagirath!,  ii.  305. 
Bhao  Daji,  Dr.,  ii.  289  n.  1,  294. 


362 


INDEX. 


BHA 

Bhao  Daji,  Dr.,  on  the  age  of  Arya- 
bha»a,  ii.  289  n.  1. 

Bharadva</a,  ii.  126. 

Bharatas,  the  people  of  the — pre- 
served bv  the  pruver  of  Visvami- 
tra,  ii.  325. 

—  Kusikas  or,  ii.  334. 
Bhava,  ii.  73. 

Bheka  (frog),  Bheki  (sun),  story  of, 

ii.  245. 

bhikshu  (mendicant),  i.  209. 
Bhikshuka,  i.  204. 
bhratar,  ii.  21,  24,  31. 
Bhngu,  ii,  200,  328,  332,  333. 

—  tribe  of  the  Bhngus,  200. 

—  Visvamitra    admitted    into    the 
Brahmanic  family  of  the,  ii.  328. 

—  the,  slain  by  the  Kshatriyas,  ii. 
332, 333. 

bhu,  to  be,  ii.  61. 

Bible,  authority  of  the,  ii.  307. 

—  the    Church     of   Rome     argued 
against  the,  ii.  314. 

—  the  Gothic  Bible  (of  Ulphilas),  ii. 
187,  250. 

—  translation  of  the  B.  into  the  Mas- 
sachusetts language,  i.  316. 

Bibliotheca  Indica,  i.  108  n.  1,  224 

n.  1,  254  n.  5. 
Bickmore,   A.  S.      (The    Ainos   or 

Hairy  Men),  ii.  277  n.  1. 
Bilpay,  Le  livre  des  lumieres  .... 

compose1   par  le  sage  Bilpay  In- 

dien,  ii.  226. 

Bimbisara,  king  of  Magadha,  i.  212. 
Biot.  i.  186,  256. 
Biscay,  Couvade  in,  ii.  273. 
Bitol.'i.  329. 

Bitto,  epigram  on,  ii.  10. 
Bkah-hgyur  (Kanjur),  i.  189. 
Black  Sea,  Couvade  formerly  there, 

ii.  274. 

Bleda,  ii.  110. 
Bleek,  Dr.,  ii.  208,  210,  267. 

—  Reynard  the    Fox  in    South    Af- 
rica, among   the  Hottentots,   dis- 
covered by,  ii.  210. 

Bli:delin,  ii.'llO. 

bo,  ii.  42. 

Boar,  heavenlv  =  Vishnu,  ii.  310. 

Bodhisattva,  i.  203,  204,    272,  283, 

284. 

Bodhisattva  dharani,  i.  204. 
Boeckh,  ii.  291. 

Boethius,  ii.  285-288,  291,  292. 
-  Continuator  of,  ii.  286,  292. 


BRA 
Boethius,  Apices  given  in,  ii.  288. 

—  nine  figures  ascribed  by  Hoethim 
to  the  Pythagoreans,  ii.  285. 

—  the  figures  in  the  MSS.  of —  coin- 
cide with  the  earliest   Gobar  lig- 
ures,  ii.  287. 

—  geometry  of,  ii.  285. 
Bohemian,  ii.  29,  38,  42,  44. 

—  old,ii.  29. 

Bohlen,  von,  5.  140  n.  1. 
Bollensen,  ii.  113  n.  1. 
Bombay,  Parsis  of,  i.  87. 
bonus,  ii.  67. 
Boots,  ii.  212,  218,  220. 
Bopp,  i.  80,  95,  117;  ii.  19,  38,  40, 
48  n.  1,86,  90,  147,174. 

—  comparative  grammar,  i.  80,  95 ; 
ii.  19. 

—  Glossarium,  ii.  49  n.  1. 
Boreas,  ii.  1, 157,  158. 
Borneo,  Dayaks  of,  ii.  275. 
bos,  buves,  ii.  26,  42. 
Botta,  trader  at,  i.  312. 

Boturini,  collector  of  American  MSS. 

and  antiquities,  i.  320,  321. 
Bouddha  et  sa  Religion  (Par  T.  Bar- 

the"lemy  Saint-Hilaire),  i.  179  n.  1 

/JouKoAe'co,  ii.  2ti. 

Bourien,  Father,  ii.  280. 

Bournemouth,  flirt's  of,  ii.  157. 

0oOs,  #6ts,  ii.  26,  42. 

/tfouoWVoi',  ii.  28. 

Bouvet,  Pr.  xv. 

Bowring,  Sir  John,  i.  258. 

Brahma,  Pr.  xviii. ;  i.  205,  243,  259, 
294,  298;  ii.  326,  329;  see  Brah- 
man, n. 

Brahma  dvish,  hater  of  Brahmans, 
ii.  326. 

Brahmagupta,  Siddhanta  of,  ii.  289. 

Brahmahood,  Visvamitra's  superhu- 
man struggles  for,  ii.  333. 

brahmaA'arya,  i.  205. 

Brahman,  n.,  force,  prayer:  n.  m. 
god,  i.  G8,  69,  71,  220,  227,  228, 
243,  252.  298,  359;  ii.  299,  300, 
306,  32o,  32J,  330,  331. 

—  n.,  force,  prayer,  i.  68,  63;  ii.  329. 

—  (n.)  m.,  god,"i.  68,  69,  70,  etc. 

—  Brahman  the  first  God,  the  Brah- 
mans the  first  caste.,  ii.  331. 

—  the  Brahmana  is  his  mouth,  the 
Ra^anya  his  arms,  the  Vaisya  his 
thighs,"  and  the  /S'udra  his  feet,  ii. 
306. 

—  created  *rst    the    warlike    gods, 


INDEX. 


363 


BRA 

then   the    corporations    of  gods, 
and  at  last  the  earth,  ii.  330 

Brahman,  the  Veda  revealed  by  ii. 
299. 

Brahman,  priest,  overseer,  Pr.  vii., 
xi.,  xviii.,  xx.,  xxiv.,  xxv.,xxxii. ; 
i.  1,2,  8,  9,13,  23,  24,  71,  75, 101- 
103,  105-107,  110,  113,  115,  121, 
126,  151,  153,  156,  176,  179,  183, 
210,  211,  216,  217,  220-222  224- 
228,  230,  241,  243,  246,  27H  n.  1. 
281,  296,  298,  308,  331;  ii.  13,  33 
34,  35,  36,  52,  114,  118.  147,  201 
204,  227,  229,  284,  299-307,  309, 
313-316,  321,  322,  326,  328-342 
345,  346-350,  353. 

—  how  the  lower  castes  were  treated 
by  the—,  ii.  322. 

—  the  color  of  the  — ,  according  to 
Mahabharata,  white,  ii.  321. 

Brahman,  in  South  India  the  —  are 
as  black  as  Pariahs,  ii.  321. 

—  controversies  of   the  —  with  the 
Mohammedans,  ii.  304. 

—correspondence  between  an  ortho- 
dox —  and  the  editor  of  a  native 
newspaper  at  Madras,  ii.  309. 

—  the  —  in  the  Indian   Drama,  ii. 
114. 

—  fables  of  the,  i.  331. 

—  inventors  of  the  figures,  ii.  284. 

—  gifts  from  a  (S'udra  not  to  be  ac- 
cepted by  a  — ,  ii.  348. 

—  the  —  are  human  gods,  ii.  331, 
339. 

—  Sacred  Hymns  of  the  — ,  Pr.  vii. ; 
i.  226. 

—  admission   of  the   Kshatrivas  to 
the  caste  of  the  — ,  ii.  328, 333  335, 
336,  337. 

—  Kings  must  cede  the  way  to  the 
— ,  ii.  334. 

—  supporting  the  laws  of  Manu,  ii. 
815,  316. 

~  marriages  between  —  and  Sftdras 
disapproved  of,  ii.  315,  316. 

—  marriages  between  Aryas  and  Stt- 
dras  prohibited,  ii.  337. 

—  a   Na3'adi   in    Malabar  defiles    a 
Brahman  at  a  distance  of  seventy- 
four  paces,  ii.  350. 

—  Parasurama,  the  great  hero  of  the 
— ,  ii.  332. 

—  the  physiognomy  of  the  — nobler 
than  that  of  the  lower  castes,  ii. 
321 


Bfil 

Brahman,  sfory  of  the  —  and   th« 
three  thieves,  ii.  227-229. 

—  Vedanta  philosophy  of  the  —  ,  ii 
303. 

—  Visvamitra,  though   of  royal  ex- 
traction, became  a  —  ,  ii.  333,  335. 

—  the  four  Yugas  of  the  —  ,  i.  151. 


«&*'-*,  -to  ;  11.  oUo. 
Brahmana,  theological  tracts,  i.  10 
12-15,  17,  70,  72,  74,75,  102-114 
220,  242;  ii.  101,  103,  125,  314 
315,  323,  328,  329,  331,  336. 

—  according  to  the  Brahmans  also 
of  divine  origin,  ii.  315. 

—  the  later  Br.  support  the  priestly 
pretensions  of  the   Brahmans,  ii. 
315. 

—  period,  i.  Ill;  ii.  331;  Aitareva 
—  ,  i.   102-114;    Satapatha  —  ,  "ii. 
328,  331,  336. 

Brali  manic  ancestors  of  the  Zoroaa- 
trians,  i.  370. 

—  Discipline,  ii.  329. 

—  Reaction    against  Buddhism,  ii. 
339. 

—  Sacrifices  abolished,  ii.  339. 
Brahmanism,  Pr.  xiv.,  xx.;  i.  13,  23. 

48,  50,  99,  198,  220,  221,  234,  250; 

reestablishment  of  —  ,  i.  221. 
Brahmanists,   number  of,   158,  212 

n.  1. 
Brahma-vaivarta,  sentence  from  the, 

ii.  334. 
Brahmyas,  followers  of  Brahma,   i. 

205. 
Brasseur,  de   Bourbourg,  editor  of 

the  "Popol  Vuli,"  i.  309  n.  1,322- 

325,  328. 
brat',  ii.  21. 
bratar,  ii.  21. 
brathair,  ii.  21. 
Breal,  i.  84  n.  1,  145,   152;  ii.  165 

n.l. 

brech,  ii.  42. 
Breton,  ii.  28  n.  1,  29. 
Bribu,  admitted  into  the  Brakmanic 

community,  ii.  126. 
Bridge  over  the  hell,  ii.264. 
Rnhad-arartyaka,  i.  69  n.  1  and  2. 
B/'ihad  -  ara«yaka  -  upanishad,    Ac- 

count of  the  creation  in  the  —  ,  ii. 

330. 

Brihaddevata,  ii.  36. 
b)-ihaddiva,  ii.  100. 
Brihan-Naradlya-Purana,  ii.  33  n  1 


364 


INDEX. 


BRI 

Brihaspati,  ii.  33  n.  1, 133. 
B/'ihat-katha,  ii.  113. 
Brinton,  ii.  112  n.  1. 
British  Guiana,  ii.  269. 
Brockhaus,  Prof,  i.  119. 
Gpovr'i  (he  thunders),  i.  353. 
brother,  ii.  21. 
brother-in-law,  ii.  29,  52. 
Browne,  Rev.  R.  G.  S.,  i.  131, 132. 
Brimehault,   Brunhilt,   Brvnhild,  ii. 

107-111,  187,  194,  259. 
bruth-t'aths  (bridegroom),  ii.  37. 
brut-loufti    (bride-racing),    ii.    260, 

261. 
Brynhild  (see  Brunehault,  Brunhilt), 

pelf-immolation  of — ,  ii  259. 
Bstan-hgyur  (Tanjur^,  i.  189. 
Buddha,  Pr.  xxiv.,  xxvi. 
— did  not  wisli  to  abolish  caste  as  a 

social  institution,  ii.  337. 

—  but  nil  who  believe  in  —  cease  to 
be  Brahmans,  Ksliatriyas,  Vaisyas, 
and  i'&dras,  ii.  338. 

—  ten  commandments  of,  i.  244. 

—  death  of.  i.  20-2.  213. 

—  devoured  by  tigers,  i.  245. 

—  discourses  or  Sutras  of,  i.  193. 

—  doctrines  of,  i.  187,  255,  289,  294; 
i.    338 ;  commencement  of  the  — , 
i.  289. 

—  dust  of,  i.  271. 

—  the  enlightened,  i.  206,  211,  214, 
215, 2-28.  243,  294. 

—  became  a  heretic  by  denying  the 
authority  of  the  Veda,  ii.'SOO. 

—  the  heresv  of — exterminated  on 
the  soil  of  India,  ii.  339. 

—  lite  of  (see  Lahita  Vistara),  i.  205, 
sqq.,  254. 

—  Pratveka   (Supreme)  — ,  i.   203, 
285." 

—  Relics  of,  ii.  339. 

—  shadow  of,  i.  268,  270. 

—  statues  of,  i.  271,  289. 

—  Sutras  (discourses)  of,  i.  193. 
Puddhaghosha,  i.  194,  195. 
Buddhi-m  in  Ceylon,  China,  Kash- 
mir, Thibet,  i.  254. 

—  Ceylon  chief  seat  of — ,  i.  270. 

—  in  "Russia  and  Sweden,  i.  233. 

—  canonical  books  of,  i.  373. 

—  Chinese  writers  on,  i.  292. 

—  losing  ground  rapidly  in  India  at 
the  time    of    Uiouen-thsang,    ii. 
339. 

—  of  the  Shamans,  Pr.  xxiv. 


BUR 

Buddhism,  State  religion  of  China 
i.  254. 

Buddhist  books  written  in  a  tolera- 
bly correct  Sanskrit,  i  294. 

—  canonical   books   of  the — ,   i.  .3, 
23,  183,  184,  277,  284. 

—  of  Burmah,  i.  230. 

—  canon,  Pr.  xxiv.;  1. 187, 183, 190, 
191,  202,  212,  229,  280. 

—  Thibetan  translation  of  the  —  ca- 
non, i.  188. 

—  Chinese  — ,  i.  181,  258,  297. 

—  Chinese  translations  of  the  —  lite- 
rature of  India,  i.  288. 

—  council  (first  and  third),  Pr.  xxiv.; 
i.  252,  280,  289. 

—  emigrated    to     Cevlon,     Nepal, 
Thibet,  and  China,  n.  339. 

—  ethics  and   metaphysics,   i.   201, 
250  n.  1. 

—  Female  devotee,  i.  213. 

—  in  India  at  present  no  — ,  ii.  345. 

—  legends   and  theories  of   the  — 
(Hardy),  i.  192  n.  1. 

—  literature,  i.   188,  191,  197,  201, 
221,  259,  260,  270. 

in  China,  i.  292. 

—  Matradlia,  holy  country  of  the  — , 
i.  270. 

—  metaphysics' (Abhidharma),  i.  301, 
223,  276". 

—  Minstrel,  i.  298. 

—  Missionaries,  i.  192,  254,  289. 

—  Monastery,  i.  262. 

—  Northern",  i.  285. 

—  number  of  the—,  i.  158,  211  n.  1. 

—  enormous  numbers  used  by  the  — , 
ii.  293. 

—  philosophical  schools  among  the, 
in  India,  i.  278. 

—  pilgrims,  i.  13,  210  n.  I,  232-275, 
276,  278,  288.  292,  293,  299. 

—  similarities  between  the   Roman 
Catholic  and  the — ceremonial,  L 
187. 

—  Southern  — ,  i.  285. 

—  tenets  discussed  in  Edessa,  i.  90. 
Biihler,  G.,  i.  23  n.  2. 
Bundehesh,  i.  91, 153. 

Bunsen,  Baron,  Pr.  v.,  vii.,  viii. ;  i.  7 
122;  ii.  71  n.  1,  117,  176  n.  1.  19R 

—  work,  "  Gott  in  der  Geschichte," 
i.  122. 

Burgundy  (kings  of),  ii.  110,  112.   _ 
Burial,  the  —  in  India,  by  Koto,  ii 
35  n.  1. 


INDEX. 


365 


BUR 
Burial,  Jacob  Grimm's  Paper  on  the 

different  forms  of,  ii.  251). 
iuriatcs,  i.  189. 
Curmah,  i.  187, 192,  193,  230,234. 

-  Buddhists  of,  i.  230. 
Burmese,  i.  193,  198. 

—  MsS.  written  in  —  characters,  i. 
193. 

Burning  of  widows,  ii  33-37,  259, 
307,  309. 

—  in  the  Veda  no   law  to  counte- 
nance the  rite  of,  ii.  307. 

Barnouf,  Eugene,  I'r.  xxiv.  n.  1;  i. 
5,  80,  82,  84,  88,  96,  97,  98,  100, 
117,  119,  127,  129,  135,  143,  155, 
160,  183,  185,  18(5,  188,  191,  196- 
198,  201,  202,  218,  244  n.  1,  249 
n.  1  and  2,  253,  260,  277,  279  n.  1, 
280  n.  1,  281  n.  1,  283  n.  1,284, 
292,  295,  296;  ii.  133  n.  1, 167. 

—  founder  of  /end  philology,  i.  80. 

—  the  i.ankavatara  translated  by  — , 
i.  279 

—  Lectures  of — at  the  College   de 
France,  i.  6. 

—  L'Histoire  du  Buddhisme  Indien, 
i.  253,  2%. 

—  Introduction  a  1'histoire  du  Bud- 
dhisme, i.  197,  253,  277,  279  n.  1, 
283  n.  1,  284  n.  1. 

—  Lotus  de  la  bonne  loi,  Pr.  xxiv. 
n.  1 ;  i.  244  n.  1,  249  n.  1,  253, 
277. 

—  Names  occurring  in  the  Shahna- 
meh  identified  by  —  with  heroes 
mentioned  in  the  Zend-Avesta,  i. 
96,  97,  98,  100. 

—  Commentaire  sur  le  Yasna,  i.  143. 
Bushby,  H.  T.,  on  widow-burning, 

ii.  36  n.  1,  37  n.  1. 
Buttmann,  ii.  143. 
Byblos,  ii.  68. 

/CABALISTIC    fancies  of  Jewish 

*  J  commentators,  i.  131. 
eabbar,  ii.  42. 

Cacus,  Hercule  et,  i.  145, 152;  ii.  178. 

Caedmon,  i.  90. 

Cakchiquel,  i.  323. 

Calander,  Th.,  on  arithmetic,  ii.  284. 

Calcutta,  i.  116, 189,  186;  ii.  33  n.  1, 

113  n.  1,  301,  304,  309,  346,  348. 
-Asiatic  Society  at,  i.  196;  ii.  304. 

—  Dharmasabha  at,  ii.  348. 

—  Review,  ii.  301,  346. 
Caldwell,  i.  301. 


CAS 

calf,  ii.  42. 
Callaway,  Rev.  Henrv,  ii.  206,  208 

209,212,216. 

Calydonian  boar  hunt,  ii.  162. 
Campbell,  J.  F.  (Popular  Tales  of 

the  West  Highlands),  ii.  237-247. 
Canarese,  ii.  320. 
Canis,  ii.  42. 
Canoes,  in  Polynesia  the  souls  pass 

in  canoes  the  great  gulf  (hell),  ii. 

264. 

Caper,  ii.  42. 
Capua,  John  of,  ii.  225. 
Carib-Couvade  in  the  "West  Indies, 

ii.  277. 

Carlyle,  Mr.,  ii.  125. 
Carolina  Islands,  native  of  the,   i. 

312. 

cartH,  ii.  20. 

Carthaginians,  Pr.  xii.;  i.  312,  338. 
cassida,  cassila,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Cassiodorus,  ii.  110. 
Caste,  ii.  295-353. 

—  originally  only  two    castes,  the 
Aryas    and    the  non-Aryas,    the 
bright  and  the  dark  race,  ii.  322. 

—  originally  only  one  high — ,  but 
afterwards  divided  into  three,  ii. 
330. 

—  the  word  caste,  adopted  from  the 
Portuguese,  ii.  297. 

—  the  names  of  Manu's  castes  were 
derived  from  their  occupation,  ii. 
342. 

—  distinction  between  ethnological, 
political,   and  professional  — ,  ii. 
317. 

—  the  growth  of  the  three    upper 
castes  may  be  seen  clearly  in  the 
Brahmanas,  ii.  323. 

—  Kshatriyas  admitted  to  the  —  of 
Brahmans,  ii.  328,  333,  335,  336, 
338. 

—  Mixed  castes,  according  to  Manu, 
produced    by    intermarrying    of 
the  four  primitive  castes,  ii  241. 

—  physiognomy  of  the  Indian  castes 
different,  ii.  320,  321. 

—  In  the  hymns  of  the  TZishis  there 
is  no  authority  for — ,  ii.  306. 

—  the  threefold"  division  of  —  repre- 
sented to  have  taken  place  in  the 
Treta  age,  ii.  330. 

—  words   to  express — ,  are:   varwu 
cati,    kula,  gotra.    pravara,   ana 
Parana,  ii.  207. 


366 


INDEX. 


CAS 

Oastren,  Pr.  xiii.;  i.  234  n.  1. 
castus,  ii.  254. 
Catechism,  i.  169-175,  244  n.  1,  281. 

—  Guzerati  — of  Parsiism,  1.169-174. 

—  of  the  Shamans,  i.  244  n.  1,  281. 
Catlin,  ii.  266. 

Cattle,  ii.  42. 
causa,  cause,  ii.  63. 
L'aussin  de  Perceval,  i.  372. 
(Jecrops,  migration  of,  i.  327. 
Cilts,  i.  61,  62,  66,  235,  341;  ii.  222, 
241,  242,  243,  273  n.  1,  318,  320. 

—  Couvade  among  the  Celts,  accord- 
ing to  Strabo,  ii.  271  n.  1. 

Celtic  language,  ii.  8,  257. 

—  mythology.  Pr.  xii. 

—  religion  of  the  —  race,  i.  23. 
centum,  ii.  51. 

Ceres,  i.  356. 

Ceylon,  Buddhism  in,  i.  254;  ii.  339. 

—  history  of  Buddhism  in,  i.  196. 

—  Buddhist  literature  of,  i.  191, 197. 

—  chief  seat  of  Buddhism,  i.  270. 

—  Mahay  an  sa,   or  history   of — ,  i. 
191. 

—  monasteries  of,  ii.  258. 

—  Pali  and  Singhalese  works  of,  i. 
285. 

—  sacred  and  historical  books  of,  i. 
191,  192. 

—  Wesleyan  missionaries  in,  i.  192. 
Ceylonese  era,  i.  202. 

xai'pw,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
Chambers,  Mr,  ii  236. 
Chamen  (/Sramana),  i.  259. 
Champollion,  Pr.  xiii.;  i.  321. 
Change  of  d  to  /  in  Greek,  ii.  165 
n.  1,  184. 

—  of  t  into  e  (ai),  ii.  250. 
Chaos,  ii.  136. 

^opa,  Capias,  xapi^o^ai,  ii.  137  n.  2. 

Charis,  ii.  83  n.  2,  136,  137  n.  2. 

—  chief,  Aphrodite,  ii.  136. 

—  etymology  of,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
Chantes,  ii.  99. 100  n.  1,  129, 136, 137 

n.  2,  199. 

—  Spartan,  ii.  100  n.  1. 

Xdpires,  ii.  179. 

Charon,  i.  147  n.  1. 
chastening,  ii.  254. 
Chemosh,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 
Xir,  ii.  42. 
Cherubim,  i.  154. 
Che-wei  (Sravasti),  i.  259. 
Ch«5zy,  i.  292. 
Chichicastenango,  i.  323,  324. 


CHR 
Chichimecs,  imitations   of    the,  I 

327. 

Xt'Xtoi,  ii.  51. 
Chilperic,  ii.  110. 
Chimalpopoca.  Codex,  i.  323. 
China,  annals  of,  i.  289. 

—  Buddhism,    state    religion    in,  t 
254. 

—  Buddhists  in,  i.  197,  212  n.  1,  292. 

—  early  civilization  of,  i.  266. 

—  Couvade  in  Western,  ii.  274. 

—  Jesuit  missionaries  iu  India  and 
-,i.  301. 

—  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  in. 
Pr.  xv. 

—  view  of  Nirvana  in,  i.  287. 

—  Marco  Polo  travels  through,  ii. 
272. 

—  rubbing  of  nose,  salutation  in,  ii. 
261. 

Chinese  alphabet,  i.  257,  290,  297. 

—  Classics,  classical  books,  i.  300  n. 
1.  301,  302,  306  n.  1. 

—  Sanskrit  dictionary,  i.  288. 

—  collections  of  fables  in,  ii.  231. 

—  Couvade   in    the  —  province    0 
\Vest  Yunnan,  ii.  272. 

—  Hindus  settled  in  —  monasteries 
i.  290. 

—  language,   Pr.   xiii.;  i.  22,   258, 
290. 

—  pilgrims,  i.  197, 232,  256, 257,  266 
297;  ii.  339. 

—  translations,  i.  203  n.  1,  254,  288- 
299. 

Choctaw,  belief  of  the  —  in  a  futur* 

state,  ii.  266. 
Xolpo?,  ii.  42. 
\6proi,  ii.  40. 
chose,  ii.  63. 
Christ  and  other  masters,  Pr.  xxiv. } 

i.  49-60. 

—  The    Infant  —  carried    by    St 
Christopher,  ii.  163. 

Christian  ideas,  i.  146  (in  the  Koran), 
328;  ii.  193,207. 

—  missionaries,  i.  161, 169, 173, 176; 
ii.  13,  280. 

—  mysticism  of  Eckhardt  and  Tatt- 
ler", i.  277. 

—  number  of  Christians,  i.  158,  213 
n.  1. 

Christie,  Henry,  ii.  282. 
Christmas,  ii.  232, 241 :  —  Book,  241 

Harlequin   of—,    232;  —  Panto 

mimes,  241. 


1NDLX. 


307 


CHB 

Christos.  the  Anointed,  i.  215. 
XpiMa,  ii  175. 
XpofOf,  ii.  150. 
xpuis,  i.  175. 

Xp'icro$po>'O«,   ii.  75. 

xpiiaw,  ii.  46. 

Chung  Yung  (doctrine  of  the  Mean, 

the  third  Shoo),  i.  304,  306. 
Chuuing,  ii.  39. 
dun   Tsew  (Spring  and  Autumn, 

the  fifth  King),  i.^03. 
Chuo,  pi.  chuowi,  ii.  26,  42. 
chwegrwn,  chwegyr,  ii.  29. 
citron  (empty),  ii.  284. 
Cinderella,  ii.  218. 
cipher,  ii.  284. 
Civilization,  history  of,  ii.  248  n.  1, 

257,    262,     296.    (See     Bastian, 

Guizot,  Klemm,  Tylor.) 
Clara  (<p*cvvd),  ii.  100  n.  1. 
Clarke,  Mr.  — 's  account  of  the  be- 
lief of  theManclans,  ii.  265. 
Clemens  of  Alexandria,   Stromata, 

Pr.  xxix. ;  i.  230  n.  2,  362  n.  1. 
cloth,  name  of,  ii.  44. 
cluo  («A«*,  sravas),  i.  259. 
Codex  Cakchiquel,  —  Chimalpopoca, 

i.  323. 

—  regius,  ii.  192. 
cognoscere,  ii.  72. 
Golden,  i.  311. 

Colebrooke,  H.  T.,  i.  6, 19,  76,  183, 
186,  296;  ii.  33  n.  1,  34  n.  1,  299. 

—  Duties  of  a  faithful  Widow,  ii.  33 
n.  1. 

Colhaus,  migrations  of  the,  i.  327. 
Comparative  grammar,  ii.  19,  222. 

—  mythology,  ii.  1-141, 165  n.  1, 222, 
241. 

—  Philology,  i.  21,  79,  80;  ii.  48  n. 
1,  223,  241. 

Comparetti,  Prof.,  ii.  165  n.  1. 
Comte,  i.  52,  55. 
Comtean  epochs,  Pr.  ix. 
Confucian,  i.  179,  306,  307. 

—  Analects,!.  306,307. 
Confucius,  Pr.  xiii.,  xv. ;  i.  50,  55, 

184,  212,  254,  263,  272,  289,  300- 
308. 

—  doctrines  of,  i.  254,  272,  28? . 

—  The  5th  (Chun  Tsew)  King  only 
composed  by,  i.  304. 

cons-ilium  (considium),  ii.  25. 
consobrinus,  ii.  31. 
Coptic  figures  in  Egypt  adopted  by 
the  Arabs,  ii.  288. 


CYR 

Cordova,  ii.  285. 

Cornish,  ii.  28  n.  1,  43. 

Corpus  Juris  of  Gagannatha,  ii.  33 
n.  1. 

Correspondence  between  an  orthodox 
Brahman  and  the  Editor  of  a  na- 
tive newspaper  at  Madras,  ii.  309- 
314. 

Corsica,  Couvade  in,  ii.  273,  274,  279. 

Corssen  (Kritische  Beitrage),  ii.  172, 
n.  1,  3,  4. 

Cortez,  i.  182,  321,  323. 

—  Don  Juan,  i.  325. 
Costus  Speciosus,  ii.  201-203. 
Council,   Early  councils  of  Christi- 
anity, Pr.  xxvi. 

—  Buddhist,  i.  253,  280. 
Cousin,  i.  186,  242. 
Couvade,  ii.  272-279. 

—  origin  of  the,  ii.  276,  sqq. 
Cow,  ii.  42. 

Cowell,  ii.  336  n.  1. 

Cox,  G.  \V.,  Manual  of  Mythology, 
ii.  154-169. 

Crane,  clan,  i.  313. 

Creation  of  the  gods,  ii.  330, 331;  — 
of  man,  i.  330-333;  ii.  330;  —  of 
the  world,  i.  151,  152 ;  ii.  330. 

credo,  i.  42. 

Cremona,  Gerard  of,  ii.  291. 

Creuzer,  i.  276-278;  ii.  142, 155. 

—  Symbolik  of,    i.   278;    symbolic 
school  of,  ii.  142. 

cu,  ii.  42. 

engine,  ii.  33. 

cuneiform,  i.  5,  85,  87,  130,  160,  260 

267,  322,  373. 
— edicts  of  Darius,  i.  160. 

—  Decipherer  of— inscriptions,  i.  322. 

—  inscriptions,  i.   5,  130,   260,    322, 
373  (of  Babylon  and  Nineveh),  ii. 
185. 

—  Oppert's  theory  on  the  invention 
of—  letters,  i.  267. 

—  translation    of  —  inscriptions,    i. 
130,  260. 

Cunningham,  General  A.,  ii.  294. 

Cupid,  ii  137  n.  2. 

Curtius,  Prof.,  i.  82  n.  1;  ii.  47,  48 

n.  1,  86  n.  2,  92  n.  1,  136  n.  2, 137, 

166  n.  1,  177  n.  1. 
Customs,  on  manners  and,  ii.  248- 

283. 

cvn,  cyning,  ii.  200. 
Cyrus;  i.  5,  64,  99,  127,  142, 146, 159 

"160, 362  n.  1 ;  ii.  164-168. 


368 


1KDEX. 


DAD 

•T)ADALA,  i.  193. 
-*-''  daeges  eiige,  ii.  119  n.  1. 
6ar,p,  ii.  29,  52,  184  n.  1. 
daeva,  i.  25. 
daga,  ii.  90. 
dagian,  ii.  90. 

Dagon,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 
dab  (to  burn),  ii.  90. 
dahyu,  ii.  38, 185. 
ilairah,  ii.  39. 
Scu'os,  ii.  185. 

daisy,  myth  of,  ii.  119  n.  1. 
Dakiki,  poet,  i.  94. 
6a«p  •,  ii.  89, 184  n.  1. 
daina,  ii.  39. 
Damascus,  ii.  288. 
dawsanavat,  ii.  27. 
Danaus,  migration  of,  i.  327. 
da/trfa,  Rtick,  ii.  254. 
Daw/apaMt,  father  of  Buddha's  wife, 

i.  207,  215. 
dawhu,  ii.  185. 
Daniel,  i.   143,   146;    ii.  168  (book 

of). 
Danishver,  Dikhan,  collector  of  the 

epic  traditions  of  Persia,  i.  93,  94. 
Dank-wart,  ii.  110. 
£«o;,  ii.  185. 
Daphne,  ii.  92,  93, 156. 

—  Myth  of  Daphne  and  Apollo,  ii. 
92,  93, 156. 

—  name  of  the  dawn,  ii.  156. 
8a'^,  ii.  92  n.  1, 166  n.  1, 179. 

8a<£c7j(^opos,  ii.  88. 

Dapplegrim,  ii.  217. 
daqyu,  ii.  185. 
Darab,  Dustoor,  i.  119. 
Darius,  i.  86,  88,  127,  128, 146, 159, 
160,  260;  ii.  38, 168, 185,  249. 

—  cuneiform  edicts  of,  i.  160. 

—  inscriptions  of,  i  127. 

—  the  Median,  ii.  168. 
das,  to  perish,  ii.  185. 
dasa,  ii.  51. 

dasa,  people,  enemy,  ii.  38, 165  n.  1, 
176,  184-186. 

dasahauta,  ii.  165  n.  1, 184, 186. 

dasa  nari,  ii.  2-32. 

dasa-pati,  ii.  38,  185. 

dasa-patni,  ii.  88, 185,  232. 

basaratha,  i.  215 

Dasent,  Dr.  G.  W.,  ii.  154, 187-194, 
197,  217,  219,  220.  222,  226-229, 
232,  234,  237-239,  241,  287. 

—  The  Norsemen  in  Iceland,  ii.  187- 
192. 


Seu 

Dasent,  Popular  Tales  from  the  None 

ii.  217-236. 
Saffunj?,  ii.  173. 
divsya,  ii.  165  n.  1. 
dasva-nari,  ii.  88. 
dasvu,  ii.  38,  176, 184,  321,  329,  38L 

—  =  dasa,  people,  ii.  38. 
dasyuhaii,  dasyulianta,  ii.  184. 
dasyuhatyaya,  ii.  103. 
Savxnov,  ii.  92  n.  1. 
daughter,  ii.  21,  52. 
daughter-in-law,  ii.  29. 

daur,  ii.  40. 

dautia,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

David,  i.  151,  153. 

David  Sahid  d'lspahan,  ii.  226. 

dawe,  ii.  90. 

Dawn,  i.  2J5;  ii.  80,  83,  87,  90-96 
98-100, 10  i,  LOG,  107, 126,  128,  129 
132-136,  151,  152, 156, 160, 181  n. 
1,  224.  232,  257. 

—  myths  of,  ii.  80  sqq. 

—  names  of,  i.  235  ( Ushas,  Urvarf, 
Ahaua,  Surva),  ii.  128,  129  (asva> 

day,  ii.  89,  135, 138  n  2. 

Dayaks  of  Borneo,  ii.  275. 

dea,  ii.  32. 

dear,  ii.  21. 

decem,  ii.  51. 

Dechak,  ii.  168. 

dedicare  (delicare),  ii.  184  n.  1. 

Dehak  (ten  evils),  ii.  168. 

Deianeira,  ii.  88,  89,  232. 

deiga,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

Aei/ios,  ii.  137  n.  2. 

Deism,  i.  370. 

Deity,  absorption  into  the,  i.  57. 

—  Belief  in  two  great  deities  in  South 
America,  ii.  264, 265. 

—  invisible,  i.  230. 

—  names  of  the,  i.  359,  37i. 
Dejoces,  ii.  168. 

£c'xa,  ii.  51. 

Dekhan,  name  of  some  low  caste*  in 

the,  ii.  322. 
Deliades,  ii.  170. 
A>jAoi;,  ii.  73. 
Delos,  ii.  73. 
6^X0;,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
Delphos,  ii.  69. 
Deluge,  i.  155. 
Demagogos,  i.  259. 
Demeter,  i.  361;  ii.  108. 
Demon  of  night  ( Witra),  i.  152. 
Denmark,  i.  143;  ii.  237,  252. 
fcu^oirijt,  ii.  184. 


INDEX. 


869 


DER 
Deri,  i.  91. 

descondo,  i.  83  n.  1. 

ScffTroira,  Seajron]?,  ii.  38,  185. 

deszimt,  ii.  51. 

Deukalion,  ii.  11. 

deus,   i.   25.  238,  361;   ii.  124  (ex 

machina). 
Deutsche,  i.  32  n.  1,  83  n.  1;  ii.  36  n. 

2,  79  n.  1,  85  n.  1. 

—  Monatsschrift,  i.  32  n.  1. 

—  Morgenliindische  Gesellschaft.  ii. 
36  n.  2. 

—  Mythologie  (by  Grimm),  ii.  79  n. 
1,  85  n.  1. 

—  Geschichtederdeutschen  Sprache 
(by  Grimm),  i.  83  n.  1. 

deux,  ii.  223. 

Dev  (evil  spirit),  i.  145. 

Deva,  bright,  divine,  i?od,  i.  24,  204, 

235,  361,  370;  ii.  95, 148, 179,  328, 

330,  331. 

Devadatta,  i.  371. 
Devapatni,  ii.  232. 
devar,  devara,  ii.  29,  52,  184  n.  1. 
Devil,  i.  125;  ii.  146,  218,  219,  281. 

—  the  Aryan  nations    had  no,  ii. 
233. 

—  Swiss  legend  of  the  D.'s  bridge, 
ii.  146. 

—  gods  turned  into,  ii.  233. 

—  personality  of  the,  i.  125. 

—  poor  or  stupid,  ii.  234. 

—  The  Devil  is  represented  black  in 
Europe,   and  white  in  Africa,  ii. 
281. 

Dew,  ii.  86,  87, 103. 

deweris,  ii.  31. 

dewyni,  ii.  53. 

Dhanimapadam    (a    Pali  work    on 

Buddhist  ethics),  i.  197,  217,  251 

n.  1. 

dharani,  i.  204. 
Dliarma,  i.  193,  298  ;  ii.  303. 

—  law,   the  general    name    of  the 
second  and   third  baskets  of  the 
Tripi/aka,  i.  193. 

Dharmasaliha  at  Calcutta,  ii.  348. 

Dl  auli,  5.  253,  294. 

dhava,  ii.  32. 

Jhu,  to  tear,  ii.  173. 

dhuma,  i.  96. 

Diabolus,  ii.  233. 

&ia.KTu>p,  6iaKTopos,  ii.  133. 

Dialect,  ii.  93  n.  1, 165  n.  1, 171  n.  1, 

257,  320. 
Dialectic,  ii.  9, 12  (period). 

VOL.  n.  24 


OKI 

Dialogue  in  Guzerati  (Catechism  of 
Parsiism),  i.  169,  170. 

—  Gylfi's  Mocking,  ii.  194. 

Diana,  ii.  85. 

didhyana/i,  ii.  83. 

Dietrich  von  Hern,  ii.  110. 

Dieti-donne",  i.  215. 

Digamma  (aeolicum),  i.  87;  ii.  87  n. 
1,  171;  — in  Homer,  i.  87. 

dih,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

Dikhan  (farmer,  historian,  landed 
nobleman  of  Persia),  i.  92,  95. 

dina,  ii.  137  n.  2.  * 

dingua,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

Dio  Cassius,  i.  120. 

Diocletian,  i.  159. 

Diodorus  Siculus,  Couvade  men- 
tioned by,  ii.  273. 

Diomedes,  ii.  77. 

Dionvsos,  ii.  65. 

Dioskuroi,  ii.  91. 

Aiim'/ua,  ji.  136  n.  1. 

Dipavansa  (history  of  Buddhism  in 

Cevlon),  i.  196. 
Directorium  humanae  vitse,  ii.  225, 

228. 

Swot,  ii.  165  n.  1, 184  n.  1. 
Diumpais,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
div,  ii.  149  n.  1. 
diva,  ii.  137  n.  2, 148. 
do  (two),  ii.  223. 
Dobrizhofer,  ii.  278. 
doctor,symbolic  emblem  of  the,i.  314. 
Sui&eKa,  ii.  51. 
dog,  ii.  42. 
Dolores,  i.  355. 
Domenech,  Abbe"  Em.,  i.  309,  310. 

—  Manuscrit  Pictographique  Amer- 
icain  by,  i.  309  n.  2,  310. 

Dominican,  religious  zeal  of  the  — 

and  Franciscan  friars,  i.  320. 
I'M/ •!,?,  ii.  39. 
doniii,  ii.  39. 
domus,  ii.  39. 
donkey,  ii.  42,  230. 

—  Story  of  the  Donkey  in  the  Lion's 
skin,"ii.  230. 

dor,  ii.  40- 

Dorian  immigration,  ii.  112. 
Dornroschen,  ii.  154. 
Dowson,  Prof,  ii.  294. 
Dreamland,  ii  219. 
Dribliika,  ii.  178. 
drimhita,  ii.  27. 

Driptabalaki  Gargya,  story  of,  u. 
336  n.  1. 


870 


INDEX. 


DRU 

Druids,  ii.  298. 
Dsungary,  i.  265. 
du  (two),  ii.  51,  223. 
du  (to  burn),  ii.  185. 
Dualism  (in  Parsiism),  i.  152, l'.~\ 
ducere,  ii.  256. 
dughdhar,  ii.  21. 

duh  (to  milk)  root  of  dnhitar,ii.  24. 
duhitar,  ii.  21,  24,  25,  28, 108. 
dukte,  ii.  21. 
dum,  i.  137. 
duo,  ii.  51. 
duodecim,  ii.  51. 
Durga  (Commentary  on  the  Niruk- 

ta),  ii.  180  n.  1. 
durrys,  ii.  40. 

Dustoor,  i.  117, 119, 166, 171. 
Du  Tertre,  ii.  277. 
t'ux,  ii.  256. 
dviiilasa,  ii.  51. 

dvHiu,  dvandvam  (pair),  i.  137. 
djrar,  dvaras,  ii.  40. 
drnu,  ii.  51. 
dwi  deszimti,  ii.  51. 
dwi-lika,  ii.  51. 
Dyaus,  i.  78  (deus,  the  bright),  353- 

355,  358,  360,  361;  ii.  21,  72,91, 

13G,  137  n.  2,  179. 

—  Arusha,  child  of,  ii.  135, 136. 
dyav-an,  ii.  157. 

Jiifie,  ii.  79  n.  2. 

Svut  (two),  ii.  51. 

Svia  (to  dive  into),  ii.  79. 

Dyotana,  ii.  90. 

ivcrfj.il  ijAi'oU,  ii.  79. 

Dvu  (Jupiter,  sky,  day),  i.  235;  ii.  90. 
dyu  (to  be  brilliant),  ii.  90, 137  n.  2, 
157. 

EAR,  to,  ii.  43. 
Karth,  ii.  98, 107, 136, 152,  266, 
230,  331. 

—  Erinyes,  daughters  of,  ii.  152. 
East,  position  of  women  in  the,  ii.  345. 

—  all  important  religions  sprung  up 
in  the,  i.  333. 

East  India  Company,  Pr.  vii. ;  i.  7, 
185,  187,  274;  ii.  3"01,  304,  305. 

—  the   Veda  published   under  the 
patronage  of  the,  ii.  305. 

Eastwick,  Prof.,  ii.  226. 

Eating,  representation  of,  i.  314. 

ech,  ii.  42. 

echidna,  ii.  167, 182, 183. 

«-Xw,  ii.  42. 

Echo,  ii.  157. 


*>>,  ii.  60,  70. 

Eckhardt,  Christian  mysticism  of — 

and  Tauler,  i.  277. 
Edda,  ii.  77,  107,  108,  110,  111,  187 

189,  192,  193,  198,  217. 

—  the  Old  (collected  bv  Saeraund), 
ii.  192. 

—  Young  (collected  by  Snorro  Stur- 
lason),  ii.  192. 

Eden,  Garden  of,  i.  153,  154. 
Edessa,  i.  90. 
Edomites,  i.  371. 
>jepo/'oms,  ii-  151. 

eyx^o?)  H.  42. 

Egypt,  Pr.  xiii.;  i.  4,  91,  142,  150 
159,  183,  219, 266,  317,  321, 363:  iL 
3,  208,  2-29,  288-290,  295. 

—  Arabs  in,  ii  289. 

—  Caste  in  Ancient,  ii.  295. 

—  early  Civilization  of,  i.  266. 

—  Countries  south  of,  ii.  208. 

—  In  —  the  Arabs  adopted  the  Cop. 
tic  figures,  ii.  288. 

—  Koman  province,  ii.  290. 
Ei,  ii.  243. 

Eichhoff,  ii.  48  n.  1. 
eidolon,  i.  354. 
eifiul?,  ci6i/ra,  ii.  133. 

Cl/COCTl,  J5.    51. 

eiAtopey,  ii.  29. 
tivarepes,  ii.  29. 

elpos,  ii.  173. 

ekadasa,  ii.  51. 

ekas,  ii.  51. 

ekatara,  ii.  243. 

El  (strong;,  i.  359,  360,  371. 

Eliot,  Translator  of  the  Bible  intc  thi 

Massachusetts  language,  i.  316. 
Elis,  ii.  78.  80-83. 
Eliun  i  highest),  i.  359,  369. 

eAAepa,  ra,  ii.  170. 

Eloah.  i.  369. 

Elohim,  i.  341,  (worshippers  of),3Si. 

365,  369,  370. 
eAins,  ii.  26. 
Elysian  field,  i.  230. 
em,  ii.  18. 
iniu,  ii.  18,  61. 

ci'aXioy,  ii.  47. 

IvSioi,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
£y£vju.a,  ii.  80. 
Endymion,  ii.  78-83, 157. 

—  myth  of  Selene  and,  ii.  79  sqq. 
evSva>,  ii.  79. 

iwcavorof ,  ii.  93  n.  1. 


INDEX. 


371 


ippea,  ii.  51. 

ensis,  ii.  46. 

eph,  ii.  42. 

Eorosh,  ii.  133  n.  1. 

Eos  (L'shus,  'Hois),  i.  355,  357,   ii. 

75,  76,  78,  84,  85,  87,  99,  104,  105, 

137  n.  2, 151,  156, 157 
'Huis,  ii.  lOi  n.  1, 179. 
Ephnum  Syrus,  i.  90. 
Ef  ic  age  or  literature,  i.  16. 

—  poems  of  India,  ii.  75. 
Epmieiiides,  ii.  70  n.  1. 
Epmietheus,  ii.  70. 

fcpO-o,   ii.  t&. 

equus,  ii.  42. 
er,  ii.  45. 

ipa.IJ.ai,  epaw,  ii.  137  n.  2. 

Eraii,  i.  32  n.  2,  140  n.  1.  143,  147 

n.  1, 149. 
Eranier,  i.  143. 

eparot,  ipa.Tfiv6y,  ii.  137  D.  2. 

Erebus,  ii.  181. 

epcai/w,  ii.  151. 

fo,  ii-  137  n.  2. 

erida,  ii.  43. 

epcxxud,/,  ii.  137  n.  2,  151. 

Erinnys,  Erinys,  ii.  70  n.  1,  151-153, 

199. 
Erinyes,  daughters  of  the  Earth,  ii. 

152. 

of  Skotos,  ii.  153. 

'Epu'xvj,  'Epixus,  ii.  137  n.  2, 179. 

epi.ov,  ii.  173. 

Eris,  ii.  64. 

epit  (sirife),  ii.  151. 

Eros,  ii.  14,  69,  78,  127-130, 133, 136, 

137  n.  2, 138,  151. 

—  son  of  Aphrodite,  ii.  136. 

—  oldest  of  the  Greek  gods,  ii.  137  n.  2. 

—  myths  of,  ii.  136. 

—  is  the  dawning  suri,  ii.  128. 

—  child  or  Zeus,  ii.  134. 
«pos,  ii.  136  n.  2. 

'Epuy,  ii.  128-130, 134, 136  n.  1  and 
ii,  2,  137  n.  2,  138. 

fp<rr,,  ii.  86  11.  2. 

ipvdpos,  ii.  108. 

Eshem-dev,  i.  145. 

Eshvar  Chandra  Vidyasagar,  ii.  309. 

esnii,  ii.  18. 

Es-Sirat,  bridge  over  the  Moslem 

hell,  ii.  264. 
«r0»j«,  ii-  -W- 

Esthonian  legend,  i.  333,  334. 
EBUS,  i.  22. 


FAL 

<$te"  (statum),  ii.61. 

Ethnic  psychology,  German  period* 

ical  on,  ii.  262. 
Ethnological  caste  (in  India),  ii.  318- 

320. 

—  Society,  Transactions  of  the.  i. 
42  n.  1 ;  ii.  29  n.  1,  280. 

Etliologicnl  researches,  ii.  261. 
Etymologicum  Magnum,  ii.  74  n.  1, 

92  n.  1. 
Eudemos,  ii.  70  n.  1. 

euxav<7T05,  ii.  93  n.  1. 

Kunuuus,  Swineherd,  ii.  19. 
Eumenides,  O.   Muller's  Essay  on 

the,  ii.  70  n.  1. 
Euphrates,  i.  90,  97, 145. 

«i/irAdxajios,  ii-  105  n.  1. 

Europe,  name  of,  ii.  99  n.  1. 
Eurydike,  ii.  99, 125, 126, 158. 
Eurymede,  ii.  99. 
Eurynome,  ii.  70  n.  1,  99. 
Eurvphaessa,  ii.  99. 
eipif?,  ii.  66,  98. 
Eurystheus,  ii.  112. 
Eurytion,  ii.  182. 
Eustathiuss,  ii.  170  n.  2. 
Evenos,  ii.  68. 

Evil  spirit,  is  represented  with  horns 
and  a  tail  in  New  Holland,  ii.  267. 
Ewald,  i.  140  n.  1,  338. 
ewe,  ii  42. 

efesrt,  ii.  69. 

Exodus,  i.  124,  304. 
eye,  ii.  243. 

FABLES,  ii.  145,210, 224-226,  i30, 
231,  258,  267. 

—  Animal  (Beast),  ii.  210,  267. 

—  Aryan,  ii.  231. 

—  Chinese,  ii.  231. 

—  Greek,  ii.  146. 

—  Lafontaine's,  ii.  225. 

—  in  Pha;dros,  ii.  231. 

—  dePilpay,  ii.  226. 

—  Sanskrit,  ii.  225. 
Fabliau,  French,  ii.  273. 
fad,  ii.  40. 

Fafnir,  ii.  108, 167. 

Fahian,  i.  210  n.  1,  215,  255,  857 

ii.  263,  202,  293,  299,  339. 
faihu,  ii.  42. 
fairy,  fairyland,  ii.  154. 
Faifv  tales,  Eastern,  ii.  258. 
Faith,  idea  of,  in  the  Veda,  i.  41. 
fallere,  ii.  63. 


872 


INDEX. 


IAN 

Fan,  Fan-lon-mo  (Brahma)    '    259, 

294,  2U8. 
farali,  ii.  42. 
fassradh,  ii.  44. 
Fate,  i  240. 
fatlier.  ii.  21,  39. 
father-in-law,  ii.  29. 
faths,  ii.  37. 

Fausboll,  i.  186, 197  251  n.  1. 
faut,  il  me,  ii.  63. 
feadbh,  ii.  32. 
Fel-to(Veda),  i.  259. 
fel,  lellis,  ii.  172. 
feld,  ii.  43. 
Fenriswolf,  ii.  194. 
t'eoii,  ii.  25. 
Feridun,  i.  94,  97,  100,  176,  ii.  167. 

—  identified  br  Burnouf  with  Thrae- 
taoua,  i.  96,*97,  99,  100. 

Fick,  A.,  ii.  186  n.  1. 
tidvor,  ii.  51. 
field,  ii.  43. 
figures,  ii.  284-294. 

—  Our  figures  borrowed  from  the 
Arabs,  ii.  284. 

—  discovered,    according    to    the 
Arabs,  by  the  Indians,  ii.  284. 

—  the  Arabs  had  two  sets  of,  ii.  287. 

—  Nine  —  by  Boethius  ascribed  to 
the  Pythagoreans,  ii.  285. 

—  Coptic  —  bv  the  Arabs  adopted 
in  Egypt,  ii."289. 

—  Gobar  or  Neo-Pythagorean —  in 
Europe  long  before  the  Arabs  in- 
vaded Spain,  ii.  291. 

—  The  Greek  —  allowed  by  Khalif 
Walid  to  use,  ii.  288. 

—  Hieratic,  ii.  293  n.  1. 

—  Coincidences  between  the  Indian 
and  the  Hieratic  — ,  ii.  293. 

—  Indian  —  were  originally  the  ini- 
tial  letters  of  the    Sanskrit    nu- 
merals, ii.  287,  288. 

fihu,  ii.  42. 

Fijians,  i.  58. 

filia  (suckling),  ii.  25. 

Fin,  Pr.  xiii. ;  i.  234  n.  2. 

Finland,  i.  234  n.  2;  ii.  237. 

Finnish  Mythology,  i.  234  n.  2. 

Firdusi,  Pr.  xxx.;  i.  79,  90,  92,  95- 

97,99,  122,178;  ii.  167. 
Fire,  emblem  of  tho  Divine  power,  i. 

167. 
Fire-worshippers,  i.  158, 159,  167. 

—  do  not  worship  the  fire,  i.  167. 
-  number  of,  i.  159. 


GAD 

fithal,  ii.  42. 
llamma,  ii.  79. 

Flemish  popular  tales,  ii.  227. 
flos,  floris,  ii.  128. 
Flourens,  i.  186. 

Fo  (Buddha),  Pr.  xiii.;  i.  212  n.  L 
foal,  ii.  42. 

Foe  Koue  Ki,  i.  254  n.  1,  n.  2,  262. 
Folda,  ii.  43. 

Folkeeventyr,  Scandinavian,  ii.  217 
Folklore,  ii."  195-205,  209. 
Fontainebleau,  forest  of,  ii.  232. 
forest,  ii.  40. 
Forstemann,  ii.  48  n.  1. 
Fo-to,  Fo  (Buddha),  i.  268,  293,  294. 
Foucaux,  i.  186,  203,  230  n.  1,  254 
n.  3,  255,  278. 

—  L'entant  egare,  i.  230  n.  1. 
Fouquet,  Pr.  xv. 

four  ages  of  the  world,  i.  149-151. 

—  stages  of  meditation  preparing  to 
Nirvana,  i.  249. 

—  verities  of  Buddha,  i.  247. 

— yugas  of  the  Bralimans,  i.  151. 
Fox,  Fables  of  Keyiiard  the,  ii.  210, 

267. 
France,  Couvade  in,  ii.  273. 

—  Hellequin  of,  ii.  232. 

—  languages  of,  ii.  252. 
Franciscan,  religious  zeal  of  Domin- 
ican and  —  friars,  i.  320. 

frater,  ii.  21. 
Fredegond,  ii.  110. 
Frederic  the  Great,  ii.  169. 
Fredun  (Feridun),  i.  98,  100. 
Freycinet  and  Arago's  Voyage  to  the 

Eastern  Ocean,  i.  312. 
frigere,  ii.  86. 
frigidus,  ii.  72. 
frog,  ii.  244-246. 

—  story  of  the,  ii.  244  sqq. 

—  used  as  a  name  of  the  sun,  ii.  245. 

—  Bheka,  Bheki,  in  Sanskrit,  ii.  246. 
Frontenac,  Count  de,  i.  311. 
Froschkuiiig,  story  of  the,  ii.  244. 
frost,  ii.  86. 

frus,  ii.  86. 

fui,  ii.  61. 

I'ula,  ii.  42. 

fumus,  i.  96. 

Future,  Belief  in  a— state,  ii.  263-267 

—  Skuld,  TO.  fieAAojTo,  ii.  61,  152. 

GABARS(Parsis),i  159. 
Gabet,  i.  261. 
Gadiii,  ii.  333. 


INDEX. 


373 


GAD 

Gadhi,  king  of  Kanyakub//a,  fa- 
ther of  Vijvamitra.'  grandfather, 
through  his  daughter,  of  Parasu- 
rfuna,  ii.  333. 

Gwa.  ii.  66  (progeny  of),  70  n.  1. 

Gaelic,  ii.  4-'5,  244.  " 

Giigannatha's  Vivadabhangarnava, 
ii.  33  n.  1. 

yagati  ;aiidante),  i.  83  n.  1. 

yaio.  ii.  65  II.  1. 
yaAcoj,  ii.  2.). 

Gaina's  collection  of  American  hiero- 
glyphic MSS.,  i.  320,  321. 

Gamailagni,  father  of  Parasurama, 
ii.  333. 

f/amatar,  ii.  29,  30. 

•yan^po?,  ii.  21),  30. 
yajxeiv,  ii.  30  11.  1. 

Gan,  root  to  </anitar,  genitor,  yeverrip, 

ii.  22,  39. 
Ganaka.  lather,  king,  ii.  39,255,328. 

—  king  of  Videha,  famous  for  his 
learning,  though  a  Kshatriya  by 
birth,  became  a  Brahman,  ii.  328, 
336,  337. 

Gandharvas,  ii.  101,102. 

Ganges,  i.  57,  97,  213,  259;  ii.  114, 

125,  223,  21)7,  338. 
</ani,  //ani  (mother),  ii.  35,  39. 
(/anitar,  #anitri,  ii.  21,22. 
ganra,  ii.  42. 
gad,  ii.  42. 
Gaokerena,  i.  154. 
Gaomaezo  (Nirang),  i.  164. 
gards,  ii.  40. 
Gargva,    renowned   reader   of  the 

Veda,  ii.  336. 
Garshasp,  i.  96. 
Garutmat,  i.  28,  362. 
gaspadorus,  ii.  38. 
oa-pati,  ii.  39. 
Gatha,  ballad,  i.  122,  294-298. 

—  dialect,  i.  298. 
yaii,  caste,  ii  297. 

Gautama  /Siikya-muni  (Buddha), 
son  of  Suddhodana,  i.  284 

—  clan  of  the  Gautamas,  i.  206. 
gavesh,  to  inquire,  ii.  27. 
javeshawa,  research,  ii.  27. 
javish/i,  battle,  ii.  27. 
Gayatri,  i.  19. 
Gayo-maratan,  i.  150. 
Gayomars,  i.  172. 
Gaznevides,  dynasty  of  the,  i.  94. 
Gellert,  story '  of  Prince  Llewellyn 

and  his  dog,  ii.  229. 


QUO 

gener,  ii.  29. 

Genesis,  i.  131,  140-157",  335,  363, 
364,  307. 

—  and  the  Zend-Avesta,  i.  140-157. 

—  MSS.  of  the  —  do  not  carry  us 
beyond   the  tenth    century  afer 
Christ,  i.  148. 

genitor,  genitrix,  ii.  22. 
Geoflrev  of  Monmouth,  i.  195. 

•ys'/M'pou,"  i.  133. 

Gerard  of  Cremona,  ii.  291. 

Geras,  ii.  64. 

Gerbert  (Pope  Sylvester  II.),  ii.  285 

<2&6. 
Gerhard,  Paul,  sacred  songs  of,  i.  3 

—  Prof.  (Greek  Mythology),  ii.  7£ 
n.  2,  144. 

German  folklore,  ii.  201. 

—  god,  ii.  231,  meaning  of  the  word 
god,  148. 

—  goddess  (Hell),  ii.  233. 

—  language,  ii.  62. 

History  of  the,ii.  27  n.  1, 48  n.  1. 

—  legends,  ii.  168. 

—  Mahrchen,  i.  331,  332;  ii.  233. 

—  mythology,  ii.  73,  81,  196. 

—  Parca?  (the  Nornes),  ii.  152. 

Germany,  Comparison  between  Nur- 
sery Tales  of  Germany,  England, 
and  India,  ii.  244. 

Gershasp,  i.  176. 

Gervones  (rVuoi-ifr),  ii.  182. 

Gesenius,  i.  132,  140n.  1. 

Gesser  Chan,  ii  266. 

Gesta  Homanorum,  borrowed  from 
the  Hitopade*a,  ii.  229. 

Geta;,  Burning  of  the  widow  among 
the,  ii.  259. 

Getavana,  i.  204. 

geVer,  ii.  29. 

ghnrma,  ii.  109. 

ghrishvi,  ii.  42. 

chntaiis,  ii.  129. 

ghritasnas,  ii.  129. 

Ghumbars  (bimestrial  holidays),  i 
165. 

Gihon,  i.  154. 

girna,  millstone,  pi.  girnos,  hand- 
mill,  ii.  43. 

Girnar,  Kdicts  of  Asoka  on  the  rocki 
of,  i.  253,  294,  299. 

Glaukos,  ii  99. 

gloaming,  ii.  161, 162. 

glos,  ii.  29. 

#nati,  knowledge,  i.  121. 

Gnosticism,  i.  251. 


374 


INDEX. 


00 

eo,  pi.  gavas,  ox,  cow,  ii.  26,  27,  42. 

Goat,  ii.  42. 

Gobar  (dust)   figures,   ii.  287,  288, 

290-293;   similarity  between    the 
Gobar  figures  and   the  Sanskrit 

numerals,  ii  288. 
Gobi,  i.  254,  289. 

—  God,  Adam,  son  of,  i.  347. 

—  The  name  of —  is  claimed  for  the 
Brahmans  as  early  as  the  Brah- 
mana  period,  ii  33"l. 

—  bright  —  of  Heaven,  Light  (In- 
dra),  i.  152;  ii.  224. 

—  Creation  of  Gods,  prelude  to  the 
creation  of  Man,  ii.  331. 

—  friend  of  Abraham,  i.  367- 

—  German  word  — ,  its  derivation, 
ii.  148. 

—  Hostanes  and  Plato    about    the 
existence  of  one  invisible  — ,  Pr. 

XXX. 

—  The  Gods  in  Iceland  believed  to 
die,  ii.  190. 

—  Names  of,  i.  351-4,  358-363,  366- 
373. 

—  The  name  of —  the  same  in  India, 
Greece,  and  Italy,  ii.  222. 

Gogerly,  Dr.  I ,  i.  192.  301. 

go-go-yuga,  ii.  26. 

goose,  ii.  42. 

gopa  (cowherd),  ii.  26. 

Gopa  (cowherdess),  wife  of  Buddha, 
i.  207.  215. 

gopayati,  ii.  26. 

Gorakpur,  i.  210. 

Gorgon,  ii.  1,  139, 178. 

gorod,  ii.  40. 

Gorresio,  Chevalier's  Italian  transla- 
tion of  the  Kamayawa,  ii.  335. 

goch£/ia  (cow-pen,  stable),  ii.  28. 

gosh</d  (assembly),  ii.  28. 

goshu-yudh,  ii.  2~7. 

gospod',  gospodin,  gospodar,  ii.  38. 

gospodarz,  ii.  38. 

Gotama  (Gautama),  ii.  33  n.  1. 

Gothic  Bible  of  Ulphilas,  ii.  249, 
250. 

gotra  (originally  hurdle),  ii.  27. 

—  name  for  caste,  ii.  297. 
gotra,  herd  of  kine,  ii.  27. 
Gottling,  i.  313. 
govedar  (cowherd),  ii.  26. 
govjado,  ii.  26  (herd),  42. 
£ow,  ii.  42. 

gows  (cow),  ii.  26. 
goyuga,  ii.  26. 


GRI 

Grandmother,  Venerable,  ii.  189. 

Grand  Veneur,  ii.  232. 

Granth,  i.  179. 

granum,  ii.  43. 

Grassmann,  ii.  90  n.  1,  108  n.  1. 

Graul,  Dr.,  ii.  301. 

Greece,  dialects  of,  ii.  166  n.  1. 

—  genealogies  of  the  dynasties  of,  i 
327. 

—  gods  of,  ii.  162. 

—  heroes  of,  i.  274. 

—  History  of  (Grote),  ii.  2. 

—  mythological    Language    of,   ii 
125. 

—  Laws  and  customs  of,  ii.  259. 

—  Migrations  of  Cecrops  and  Dan- 
aus  into,  i.  327. 

—  worship  of  nature  in,  ii.  146. 

—  The  Veda  contains  the  true  the- 
ogonj-  of,  ii.  199. 

Greek  alphabet  employed  for  nu- 
merical purposes,  ii.  2U4. 

—  gods,  ii.  73,  76  n.  1;  (Eros,  oldest 
of  the  Gr.  g.),  138  n.  2,  149,  154 
199,  206. 

—  heretics,  i.  362. 

—  of  Homer,  ii.  251. 

—  modern,  i.  298;  ii.  75,  133. 

—  months,  names  of,  ii.  80. 
Greenland,  ii.  275. 
Greenlander,  belief  of  the  —  in  life 

after  death,  ii.  264. 

Grethel,  ii.  212,  236. 

Griffith,  ljr.  xviii. 

Grihva-sutra,  ii.  34, 134  n.  1. 

Griniblot,  i.  192,  194, 195. 

Grimhild,  ii.  109, 101. 

Grimm,  i.  79,  80,  333,  334;  ii.  13  n. 
1,  25,  35  n.  1,  37,  48  n.  1,  61,  62 
67,  79  n.  1,  81, 85  n.  1, 90, 134, 148 
154,  196,  197,  207,  208,  217,  221 
223,  226,  236,  237,  258,  259,  268. 

—  The   brothers  (Jakob    and   Wil- 
helm),  ii.  207,  208,  217,  223.  237. 

—  Jakob,  ii.  134  n.  2, 196,  197,  255, 
259. 

—  on  Burial,  ii.  259. 

—  Burning  of  the  Dead,  ii.  35  n.  1. 

—  on  German  (Teutonic)  Mythology 
ii.  13  n.  1,  67,  79  n.  1,  81,  85  n.  1. 
196. 

—  History  of  the  German  Language, 
ii.  27  n.  1,  148. 

—  Essay  on  the  origin  of  Language, 
i.  333. 

—  law  of,  ii.  90. 


INDEX 


375 


GRI 

Grimm,  Essay  on  the  God  of  Love. 

11.  134  n.  1. 

—  Mahrchen,  ii.  154,  208.  217,  221, 
223,  237,  258,  2G8. 

grip,  gris,  ii.  42. 

prod,  ii.  40. 

Grote,  i.327;  ii.  2  (History  of  Greece), 

12,  14.  15  n.  2,  66,  69. 
Grotetend,  i.  85,  88,  127,  129,  260. 

•ypii/ey,  i.  154. 

Guatemala,  i.  317, 322-324, 326,  327  j 
ii.  269. 

—  Aborigines  of,  ii  269. 

—  Popol  Vuh,   sacred  book  of  the 
people  of,  i.  322. 

Gucumatz,  i.  329. 

Gudrun,  ii.  108-110. 

Guiana,  British,  ii.  269. 

Guinea,  the  devil  is  represented 
white  on  the  coast  of,  ii.  281. 

Guizot,  ii.  252,  296,  (History  of  Civil- 
ization). 

gulth,  ii.  46. 

Gundaharius,  ii.  110. 

Gundicarius,  ii.  110. 

Gunnar  (myth  of),  ii.  108, 109,  112. 

Gunther,  ii.  110,  112. 

Gushtasp,  i.  86,  94,  147. 

Guzeraii.  i.  161,  169,  175. 

—  translation  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  i. 
169,  174. 

gwisk,  ii.  44. 
Gvlfi's  Mocking,  ii.  194. 
yuvij,  ii.  39. 
Gvotisha,  i.  111. 


HABERE,  ii.  60. 
hafr,  ii.  42. 

Hagene,  ii.  108. 

haims,  ii.  40. 

hairda,  ii.  27  n.  2. 

Hall.  Dr.  FitzEdward,  i.  224  n..  1;  ii. 
33  n.  1. 

oX«,  ii.  47. 

Ham,  language  of,  ii.  253. 

hamea,  ii.  42. 

Han,  dynasty  of,  i.  254. 

han,  to" kill,  ii.  171. 

han-ta,  ii.  171. 

Haoma,  i.  154. 

bapta  hendu  (sapta  sindhu),  i.  81. 

Haran,  i.  147, 148, 156. 

bar-at,  ii.  46. 

Hardwick's  Christ  and  other  Mas- 
ters, i.  20,  49-60. 


HEL 

Hardy,  Spence,  i.  186, 192,  202,  217, 
223,  251  n  1,  278,  285,  301. 

—  Eastern  Monachism,  i.  251  n.  1, 
278. 

—  Manual  of  Buddhism,  i.  278. 
hari,  ii.  175. 

Harit,  Haritas  (Seven  Sisters),  ii.  46, 
129,  131,  132, 136, 137  n.  2,  138  n. 
2,  179,  199. 

Harlequin,  ii.  232,  259. 

Harley,  Lord,  ii.  92. 

Harold  Fairhair,  ii.  189. 

Hartung,  ii.  53  n.  1. 

haru-spex,  ii.  172. 

Hastings,  Warren,  i.  182. 

Hang,  Dr.  Martin,  i.  101-115,  117- 
125, 126  n.  1, 134, 137-139, 143, 160. 

—  Essavs  on  the  Sacred  Language 
...  of  the  Parsees,  i.  115  n.  1, 134. 

—  A  Lecture  on  an  Original  Speech, 
i.  126  n.  1. 

Havilah,  i.  145. 
hazanra,  i.  81;  ii.  51. 
Heaven,  i.  329,  330,  335;  ii.  224, 257, 
266. 

—  belief  in  the  bright  gods  of,  ii. 
224. 

—  heart  of,  i.  329,  330,  335. 

—  different  ways    to    ascend    from 
earth  to,  ii.  266. 

Hebe,  ii.  88. 

Hebrew,  i.  11,  22,  130, 131, 142,  143, 

145,  147,  151,  160,  195,  352;  ii.  8. 

225,  226. 

—  translation   of  Kalila  Dinina,  ii 
225,  226. 

—  verb  "  bara,"  i.  132. 
Hecate,  Hekate,  i.  358;  ii.  75. 
Hecuba,  ii  154. 

Hegel,  i.  20,  282;  ii.  139. 

—  logic  of,  i.  282. 

— 's  Philosophy  of  Religion,  i.  20. 
Hegelian  laws  of  thought,  Pr  ix. 
beiter,  ii.  42. 
•It,  ii.  51. 

cxarepo?,  ii.  243. 

fKtn6v,  ii.  51. 

'Efcaro!,  'Eico7T)/?oAos,  U.  75. 

«upd?,  tKDpo,  ii  29. 
Helena,  ii.  9,  138  n.  2. 
Helgi,  ii.  189. 
Helios,  ii.  73,  78,  99, 156.  163. 

—  cattle  of  (days),  ii.  163. 

jjAtos,  ii.  75  (/WXeiiei),  79,  129. 

Hell,  i.  47;  ii.  194,  233,  2fi4,  288- 

—  bridge  of,  ii.  204. 


876 


INDEX. 


DEL 
Hell,  German  goddess,  ii.  2-3-3. 

—  is  cold  to  the  northern,  hot  to  the 
eastern  nations,  ii.  282. 

Hellas,  ii.  138, 147. 

Hellen,  ii.  69. 

Ilellequin,  ii.  2-32,  259. 

Helps,  A.  (History  of  the   Spanish 

Conquest  in  America),  i.  236,  239 

n.  1,  324  n.  1. 
Jitiap,  ii.  105  n.  1. 
Hemera,  ii.  76. 
ijn«rv,  ii.  67. 
ti'Seifa.,  ii.  51. 

Heng-ho  ( Ganges),  i.  259. 
Hengist,  followers  of  —  and  Horsa, 

ii.  138. 

Henotheism,  i.  347,  350. 
heord,  ii.  27  n.  2. 
'Hut,  ii.  128. 

«JTTO,  ii.  51. 

Hera,  Here,  ii.  112  (worship  in  Ar- 

gos),  177. 
Herakltitos  ( Heraklitus),  Pr.  xxviii. ; 

ii.  10,  11,  258. 
Herakles.  i.  239;  ii.  88,  89,  96,  107, 

111,  112, 145, 146, 169, 181, 183, 206. 

—  twofold  character  of — as  a  god 
and  a  hero,  i.  239 

—  death  of,  ii.  88,  107. 

—  myth  of,  ii.  Ill,  112. 

—  names  of,  ii.  88. 

—  solar  hero.  ii.  88. 

—  a  real  Witrahan,  ii.  183. 
Heraklidae,   Herakles    national  god 

of  the,  ii.  112. 
Herat,  bazaars  of,  ii.  258. 
herbalist,  sj'mbolic  emblem  for  an,  i. 

314. 

Hermanfried,  ii.  110. 
Hernianricus,  ii.  111. 
ipnr)Vfv<a,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
Hermes.  Pr.  xxx. ;  i.  360,  365;  ii.  15, 

146.  183. 

—  Trismegistus,  Pr.  xxx. 

•Ep.-i.ij?,  -Epufias,  ii.    137    n.  2,   138 

n.  2. 

Hermippus  of  Alexandria,  i.  88. 
fpTTfrov,  ii.  42. 
Herse  (dew),  ii.  78,  85,  86. 
ep<T7,,  ii.  86  n.  2,  87  n.  2. 
Hesiod,  thcogony  of,  ii.  65  n.  2,  182. 
Hesperides  (Evening  Star),  ii.  64. 
fcrna,  ii.  87  n.  2,  137  n.  2. 
Hesus  (Ksus),  i.  23. 
it,  ii.  51. 
U0tf,  ii.  86  n.  1. 


rrrs 

Hieratic,  ii.  293  n.  1  (figures,  in- 
scriptions, sy-tem),  293  n.  1. 

Hieroglyphic  MSS.  of  America,  i 
320,  321. 

Hieroglyphics,  Mexican,  i.  317. 

iepo*,  1.  133. 

Highlands,  tales  of  the  West,  ii.  237- 
247. 

i/ceTeVto?,  Zeus,  ii.  70. 

Hjmala,  forest  of,  i.  285. 
Himalaya,  i.  02,  C4;  ii.  30,  113. 
Himalayan  countries,  i.  254,  289. 

—  mountains,  i.  255. 
Himvaritic  inscriptions,  i.  371. 
Hindu  gods,  ii.  76. 

—  the  ancient  —  believed  in  immor- 
tality, ii.  263. 

—  Monasteries,  in  China,  i.  290. 

—  Moon,  Hindu  representation  of  an 
eclipse  of  the  moon,  ii.  269. 

—  philosophy  and  religion,  i.  185. 

—  physiognomy,  difference    in    the 
phvsiognomv  of  the  Hindu  popu- 
lation, ii.  321. 

—  theatre,  ii.  113  n.  1. 

—  widows,  the  supposed  Vaidik  au- 
thority for  the  burning  of  (Wil- 
son), ii.  35  n.  1. 

Hindustani,  i.  116;  ii.  196,  221,  223, 
244,  258,  320  (a  Sanskrit  dialect). 

hiorS.  ii.  27  n.  2. 

Hiouen-thsang,  i.  13,  197,  202,  210, 
215,  232,  233,  249.  251.  255.  200- 
265,  267-272,  288,  293;  ii.  339. 

—  biography  of,  i.  232,  251,  sqq. 

—  740  books  in  1,335  volumes,  trans- 
lated bv,  i.  272. 

—  life  and  travels  of,  i.  197,260,  288 

itriro.JovKO\os,  ii.  26. 

Hippokentaur,  ii.  1,  139. 

Hipponoos,  ii.  171. 

IJTTTOS,  ii-  42- 

hiranyam,  ii.  46. 

toTtup,  ii-  86  n.  1. 

History  of  Central  America,  i.  311. 

—  of  the  Christian  Church  (Nenn- 
der),  i-  278. 

—  of  Christianity  (Dean  Milman),  L 
282 

—  of  Greece  (Grote),  ii.  2. 

—  legendary  histories  of  India,  ii. 
299. 

—  of  the  Five  Nations  (Colden),  i. 
311. 

—  of    Ancient    Sanskrit    literature 
(Max  Muller),  i.  1  n.  1,  9  n.  1, 10 


INDEX. 


377 


HIT 

n.  1,  28  n.  1,  38  n.  1, 106  n.  1,  107 
n.  1,  362  n.  2,  373  n.  1. 

Hitopadesa,  i.  308;  ii.  225,  227-231. 

Hoang-ho  (Yellow  River),  i.  263. 

Hb'der,  ii.  107. 

Hodgson,  Brian  Houghton,  i.  186- 
190,  192,  196,  197,  277,  279  n.  1. 

Hodr,  ii.  109. 

Hoeili,  i.  232  n.  1. 

Hoei-ser.g,  travels  of,  i.  255. 

Hog,  ii.  42. 

Hogni,  ii    109. 

Ho-kialo  (Vyakanrana),  i.  292. 

Holmberg,  i.  334  n.  1. 

KAnt,  ii.  172.    • 

Holtzmann,  Prof.,  i.  128. 

Homa,  i.  176  (Le  Dieu  Homa),  96. 

Homer,  i.  21,  25,  87,  90,  129,  133, 
373;  ii.  11,  21,  47,  60,  69,  70,  76, 
78,  82,  89,  104,  105, 140,  150, 151, 
163,  173,  181,  193,  199,  250,  251. 

—  Greek  of,  ii.  251. 

—  Hymn.  Merc.,  ii.  183. 

—  Voss,  translator  of,  ii.  142. 
Homonyms,  ii.  71. 

Hong  Kong.  i.  300  n.  1. 

Horae,  ii.  57. 

Horsa,  followers  of  Hengist  and,  ii. 

188. 

horse,  ii.  42,  129-132. 
hortus,  ii.  40. 
Hospodar,  ii.  38. 
Ilostanes,  Pr.  xxx. 
hostes,  ii.  185. 
Hotars  (reciters),  i.  105,  106,  106  n. 

1  (sapta  hotars,  see  Hotri). 
Hotrasanisin,  i.  106  n.  1. 
Hoiri,  priest,  ii.  36. 
Hottentots,  ii.  208,  210,  215,  267. 

—  their  stories  of  Renard  the  Fox, 
ii.  210,  267. 

Howard,  Mr.,  i.  101, 114, 117. 

Hrolf  Ganger,  ii.  188. 

Hue,  Abbe",  i.  187  n.  1,  261, 276, 281. 

Hudibras,  Sir,  ii.  272. 

luiu,  ii.  43. 

Hnmboldt  (Alex,  and  Wilh.  v.),  i. 

232,  2o6,  320 ;  ii.  147,  270. 
Huns  of  Attila,  ii.  110. 
Hun-Ahpn,  i.  332. 
Hun-Ahpn-Vuch,  i.  329. 
hund,  ii.  42. 
Hungarian,  i.  189, 190. 
Hungary,  i.  189,  190,  294. 
Hunter  (Annals  of  Rural  Bengal), 

Pr.  xviii.  n.  1. 


ICE 

hurdle,  ii.  26,  27. 

luis.  ii.  42. 

Hussain  Vaiz,  ii.  225. 

Huzvaresh  translation  of  the  Zend 

A  vesta,  i.  87,  89,  91,  92. 
hvaitei,  ii.  43. 
hveit,  ii.  43. 
Hvergelmir,  ii.  205. 
hvft,  ii.  43. 
hva,  i.  128. 
Ilyde,  Professor  at  Ox  ',-•'   ;   n;0 

wei,  Zeus,  ii.  72. 
iiypa  Ke\evda,  ii.  47. 
in<>5,  ii.  29  n.  1. 
Hymettos,  ii.  88. 

hymn  (Mantra),  i.  10, 12, 13, 15,  17 
18,  25,  28,  30,  33,  sqq. 

—  to  Agni,  i.  33. 

—  from  the  Atharva-veda,  i.  40. 

—  tolndra,  i.  30. 

—  to  the  Maruts  (Rudras)  i.  34,  sqq 

—  to  Ushas,  i.  36,  37. 

—  to  Varuna,  i.  39,  43. 
virep,  ii.  27  n.  1. 

iiirepnopar,  i.  240. 
virepVeir,  ii.  66. 

v'/iaiVtu,  ii.  44. 
Hypnos,  ii.  64, 66. 
IITT'O,  ii.  30  n.  1. 
iis,  ii.  42. 

TACK  and  the  Beanstalk,  story  of, 
<J      ii.  265. 

Jack  the  Giantkiller,  ii.  212. 
Jacob,  Pr.  xi.;  i.  364,  365. 
Jacob,  son  of  Leis,  i.  94. 
Jaggernath,  i.  57. 
Jahve,  i.  156. 
Jain,  i.  179. 
Iambics,  i.  16. 
janitrices,  ii.  29. 
Japan,  i.  157. 
Japhet,  i.  145. 

—  language  of,  ii.  253. 
Jardine,  Joseph,  i.  303. 
jatrew.  ii.  29. 

Java,  idea  of  a  bridge  of  hell  In,  n. 

264. 

javai,  ii.  43. 
Javan,  i.  145. 
Jaxartes,  i.  154,  156. 
Iberians,   i.  313  ;    ii.  273  (Couvadf 

among  thei. 
Iceland    i.  240;  ii.  10,  77,  187, 194, 

249.  ' 

—  Missionaries  in,  ii.  189, 190. 


378 


INDEX. 


ICE 

Iceland,  the  Norsemen  in,  ii.  187- 
194. 

—  discovered,  peopled,  civilized  by 
Norsemen,  ii.  189. 

—  pagan  poetry  of,  ii.  190. 

—  religious  svstem  of,  ii.  191. 
Icelandic,  ii."l87,  190-192,  193,  217 

—  Edda,  ii.  217. 

—  remains  of  Teutonic  heathendom 
only  found  in,  ii.  187. 

lia,  ii.  101  (Ai</a,  Pururavas  son  of), 

104,  136. 
Idaeus,  ii.  111. 
I5aio?,  ii.  88. 
Idas,  ii.  68. 
i$7)?,  derivatives  in  -uov  and  -<£r^,  ii. 

150. 

Jehangir,  ii.  33. 

Jehova.  Jehovah,  i.  124, 132,  341. 
Jemshid,  i.  94,  96,  97,  99,  178. 
Jeremiah,  i.  343,  365,  367. 
Jesuit,  Pr.  xvi.;  i.  301;  ii.  278. 

—  missionaries,  i.  301  (in  China  and 
India),  ii.  278. 

Jethro,  i.  364. 

Jews,  sacred  books  of  the,  i.  3. 

—  number  of,  i.  158,  212  n.  1. 

—  Persian  Captivity  of  the,  i.  159. 

—  religion  of  the,    Pr.  xii.;   i.  54, 
110  (began  with  sacrifice). 

—  bridge  of  hell  imagined  by  the, 
ii.  264. 

Jewish  divines,  i.  132. 

—  ideas,  i.  90,  146  (in  the  Koran). 

—  traditions  in,  i.  156. 
Jin,  i.  367. 

Ikshvaku,  race  of,  ii.  334. 
Ilpa,  Ilya,  ii.  204. 

im,  ii.  18. 

Immi'rtality,  i.  45,  46  n.  1;  ii.  263- 
265. 

—  belief  in,  among  the  Choctaws, 
ii.  266. 

— the  Greenlanders,  ii.  264. 

— the  ancient  Hindus  (in  per- 
sonal immortality,  immortality  of 
the  soul),  i.  45,  46  n.  1;  ii.  263. 

—  secured  by  a  son,  i.  45. 
Indians  of  South  America, 

ii.  264,  265. 

Mandans,  ii.  265. 

New  Hollanders,  ii.  266. 

impedimenta,   impelimenta,  ii.   184 

n.  1. 

imperator,  ii.  256. 
Irca,  i.  239;  ii.  112  n.  1. 


ING 

incestnm,  ii.  289. 

incluta,  ii.  lOOn.  1. 

India,  Animals,  names  of  domesti*, 

the  same  in  England  and  in  — ,  ii 

41. 
• — Arithmetic  came  to  the  Arabs  di 

rectly  from,  ii.  290. 

—  burial  in,  ii.  35  n.  1. 

—  civilization,  early,  of — ,  i.  266. 

—  Dialects,  popular  d.  of — ,  i.  299. 

—  Fables,  migration  of,  from  —  to 
Europe,  ii.  226,  229. 

—  History  of,  i.  202. 

—  Language   of,  i.  11,  21,  357;  ii. 
163.  177,  221,  225,  2»2,  320. 

—  Laws  and  customs  in,  ii.  260. 

—  Legendary  history  of,  ii.  299. 

—  Turanians  in  —  before  the  Aryan 
conquest,  ii.  320. 

India  (see  West  Indies),  ii.  277,  279. 
Indian  (of  America),  Pr.  is.;  i.  309- 
313, 315,  319  ;ii.  264,  271. 

—  of  Central  America,  i.  309. 

—  love  song,  i.  315. 

—  inscriptions,  i.  313. 

—  picture  writing,  i.  312. 

—  Red  Indians,  i.  310. 

—  Superstitions  of   the    Sioux    In- 
dians of  North  America,  ii.  271. 

—  tribes,  i.  311  (Schoolcraft   on  — 
-),  317. 

—  sacred  writings  of  the,  i.  309. 
Indica  of  Megasthenes,  i.  230  n.  2. 
Indische  Studien,  i.  114  n.  1;  ii.  134 

n.  1. 

Indra,  i.  19,  25,  27,  28,  30-32,  42,  43, 
47,  68,  98,  152,  153,  235,  243,  358, 
360, 362;  ii.  27, 73, 91,  93, 103, 120, 
123-126,  133,  167,  174,  176-180, 
183, 231, 232, 321, 322, 325, 327-330. 

—  bow  of,  ii.  121, 123. 

—  Brahman  created,  ii.  330. 

—  Fight  between — andVritra,  i.  152. 

—  Horses  of,  ii.  133. 

—  Hymn  to,  i.  30  sqq. ;  ii.  321. 

—  Name    of  —  of   Indian    growth 
(Jupiter  Pluvius),  ii.  179. 

—  flibhu  epithet  of,  ii.  126. 

—  Storms,  god  of,  ii.  231. 
indu,  ii.  179. 

Indus,  i.  62,  81,  140  n.  1,  143, 154, 

245,  271. 

induviae,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Infanticide,  ii.  310,  311,  313. 
Ingnas,    subordinate  demons,  i.  43 

n.  1. 


INDEX. 


379 


INS 
Inscriptiones  (Orelli),  i.  83  n.  1. 

—  Helvetica  (Mommsen),  i.  23  n.  1. 
Inscriptions,     Acluemenjan,    i.    89, 

119,260;  ii.  284-294 

—  of  Ardeshir,  i.  89. 

—  Babylonian,  i.  113. 

—  Baefro-Pali,  ii.  293. 

—  Greek,  i.  371. 

—  Hieratic,  ii.  293  n.  1. 

—  Hieroglyphic,  i.  317,  321. 

—  Himyaritic,  i.  371. 

—  Kapurdigiri,  ii.  293. 

—  Sassanian,  i.  89. 

—  Sinuitic,  i.  371. 

—  Taxila,  ii.  293. 
Instinct,  divine,  i.  368. 

—  religious,  i.  346. 
insula,  ii.  47. 

Joannes  de  Piano  Carpini,  ii.  270. 

Job,  book  of,  i   130,  229,  356,  357. 

Jocaste,  Jokaste,  ii.  159, 165. 

Joel,  Rabbi,  translator  of  Kalila 
Dimna,  ii.  225. 

Joguth  Chundra  Gangooly,  Pr.  xxi. 
n.  1. 

John  of  Capua,  ii.  225. 

Johnston,  Sir  Alexander,  i.  191. 

lole,  ii.  89. 

lolkos.  ii.  68. 

-i<av,  derivations  in  -uav  and  -i8>j?,  ii. 
150. 

Jones,  Sir  William,  i.  66,  80,  89, 116, 
183,  186,  219;  ii.  208  (on  Zend- 
Avesta),  299. 

lonians,  i.  327. 

Jonnunrek,  ii  111. 

Jornandes,  i.  195 ;  ii.  111. 

id?,  poi  on,  ii.  89. 

Joshua,  book  of,  i.  132,  363. 

Jotunlieim,  ii.  205. 

I-an,  i.  61,  155. 

1.  jnian,  i.  84  (nations),  145, 148, 154, 
157;  ii.  201  (woi  Id-tree). 

Iranic  language,  ii.  8. 

Ireland,  ii.  247,  252. 

—  Celtic  vernaculars  of,  ii.  252. 
Irenl'ried,  ii.  110. 

Irish,  i  2-5  n.  2  (Old);  ii.  21,  39,  42. 

44,  48,  163  (St.  Patrick  converted 

the—), 
iron,  ii.  45. 

Iroquois  country,  i.  311. 
Isaac,  Pr.  xi. ;  i.  151,  155,  367. 
Isaiah,  i.  91. 

I«ana  created  by  Brahman,  ii.  330. 
Ufendiyar,  ii.  107. 


RAM 

ishira,  lively,  i.  133  n.  1. 

IffTup,  ii.  87  n.  2. 

Uvara  (Lord)  of  the  Yogins,  i.  225. 

tToAos,  ii.  42. 

Italy,  language  of,  ii.  252,  256. 

—  laws  and  customs  in,  ii.  259. 

—  literature  of,  ii.  12. 

—  name  for  God  the  same  in  India 
Greece.,  and  — ,  ii.  222. 

Itineraries  of  the  fifty-six  (Chinese) 

monks,  i.  256. 
Julien,  Stanislas,  i.  13, 186, 197,  202, 

203  n.  1,  210  n.  1,  232,  233,  255, 

260-262,  273,  274,  278,  288,  289, 

291,  292,299;  ii.  231. 

—  Collections  of  fables  discovered 
in  Chinese  by,  ii.  231. 

—  Pelerins  Bouddhistes,  i.  210  n.  1. 
Jupiter  (dyu,  sky),  i.  23,  25,  30,  235, 

358,361;  ii.  162,179,206. 

—  Optimus  Maximus,  i.  358. 

—  Pluvius,  ii.  179. 

—  sub  Jove  frigido,  ii.  72. 
Jurmann,  i.  132  n.  1. 

Justi,  Dr.  F.,  i.  139;  ii.  100  n.  1. 

Justinus  Martyr,  Pr.  xxviii. 

Ixtlilxochitl,  i.  321. 

Izinganekwane  nensumansumare 
nezindtiba  zabantu  (Nursery 
Tales  of  the  Zulus,  by  the  ReT. 
H.  Callaway),  ii.  206  n.  1. 

KABUL,  i.  268. 
Kabulistan,  5.  266,271. 
kadamba  tree,  ii.  121. 
Kafir  dialects,  ii.  215. 

—  race,  ii.  208. 

.Kaitra,  month  (April),  i.  112. 
fcaksh  (with  vi),  ii.  99. 
£akravaka,  ii.  121. 
Kalantaka,  monastery  of,  i.  212. 

<caX«c,  ii.  31  n.  1. 

Kali,  ii.  75,  307. 

Kalidasa,   Hr.  xviii.;  i.  67;  ii.  98, 

113. 

Kalila  Dimna,  ii.  225.  226.  228. 
Kaliyuga,  the  laws  of  the  —  writtd 

bv  1'anwara,  ii.  348. 
Kaljush  (Koljush,  Kolosh),  i.  334. 
Kalpa,  i.  268. 
Kalyke,  ii.  78,  80. 
xaXj.TTw,  ii.  80. 
Kfuna,  ii.  134  n.  1, 135, 136. 
Kamchadals,  ceremonial  sine  of,  ii 

270. 


380 


INDEX. 


HAM 

Kamschatka,  ii.  275,  277  n.  1  (Ko- 

riaks  of). 
/Tandala,  lowest  outcast,  must  live 

out   of  town,    son    of  a    Sudra 

father  and  a  Brahmanic  mother, 

ii.  338,  340,  341. 
/sTar.Jra,  i.  235. 
/iTandragupta,  i.  14,  220,  221. 
Kanjur   (Bkah-hgyur,     Kah-gyur), 

i.  1P9. 

Kanne's  Mythology,  ii.  68  n.  1. 
kans,  ii.  41. 
Kanva,  i.  35. 
Kanyakuboa,  Gadhi,    king   of,   ii. 

333. 
Kapila,  5.  214,  223-228,  250;  ii.  246, 

300. 

—  ap'  orisms  of,  i.  228;  ii.  246. 

—  an  Atheistic  philosopher,  tolerated 
by  the  Brahmans,  ii.  300. 

—  Sutras  of,  i.  224. 
Kapilavastu  (substance  of  Kapila?), 

i.  206,  210,  213-215,  219,  222,  233. 

KOlTTpOS,    11.    42. 

Kapurdigiri,  Edicts  of  Asoka  pre- 
served on  the  rocks  of  Dhauli, 
Girnar,  and  — ,  i.  253, 294. 

—  numerals  in  the  inscriptions  of,  ii. 
273. 

fcarana,  ii.  297. 
Karnaga,  i.  32. 

Kopes  jJap^apopiavoi,  ii.  173. 

Karia,  ii.  78,  80. 

Kaf'pai,  i.  1  4  7  n.  1. 

karta  (pit),  i.  47. 

Kartikeya,  ii.  120. 

karwar,'i.  59,  60. 

Kashmir,  i.  254  (Buddhism  spread 

to),  270,  289. 

Kasi,  A/yatanatru,  king  of,  ii.  336. 
Kaacrvu,  ii-  44. 
Kasyapa,  i.  280,  292;  ii.  332. 

—  Compiler  of  the  Abhidharma  of 
the  T  ripi/aka,  i.  280. 

—  Parasurama  gives  the  earth  to,  ii. 
332. 

Kasyapiyas  (Kia-ye-i),  i.  292. 

iea.Ta.<rvia,  ii.  44. 

featur,  ii.  132. 

featvaras,  ii.  33. 

Kahayana,  i.  14,  212  (disciple  of 

Buddha). 
Kaunos,  ii.  68. 
caurn,  ii.  43. 
Kdiishitaki  -  brahmana  -  upanishad 

(edited  by  Cowell),  ii.  36  n.  1. 


KLO 

Kansika,  ii.  335. 

Kelly,  W.  K.  (Curiosities  of  Ind*>- 
European  Tradition  and  Folklore), 
ii.  195  n.  1,  196-198,  201-204. 

Ke-Loo,  i.  308. 

Kenaon  promontory,  ii.  88. 

Kephalos,  ii.  84-86/87,  88,  106. 

Ker,  ii.  64. 

Kerala,  law  in,  ii.  314. 

Kerberos  (the  dark  one),  ii.  180-183, 
186  n.  2. 

—  identification    of,  with    the  San- 
skrit sarvara,  ii.  180. 

Keresaspa,  i.  96 ;  ii.  167. 
keturi,  ii.  51. 
khad,  i  83  n  1. 
Khai  Khosru,  i  32  n.  1. 
Khalifs.i.  94,  171;  ii.  285,  288,  289, 
291. 

—  Almamun,  ii.  285,  289. 

—  Almansur,  ii.  289. 

—  Omar,  i.  171. 

—  Walid.  ii.  288. 
Pandas,  i.  82,  83,  121. 

—  period,  i.  105,  111. 
.K"Aandoga.  i.  83  n.  1. 
AViandogya-upanishad,  i.  (39  n.  2;  ii. 

336  n.  2. 

fc/iardis,  ii.  27  n.  2. 
Khasgar,  i.  271. 
Khian-Lung,  i.  189. 
Khi-nie,  travels  of,  i.  256. 
khor,  ii.  167. 
Khordeh  Avesta,  i.  171. 
Khorene,  Moses  of,  i.  99. 
Khosru  Nushirvan,  ii.  225,  230. 
Khoten,  i.  271. 
khvar,  ii.  167. 
Kidd,  Prof.,  i.  302. 
Kimchi,  K.  D.,  i.  131. 
King,  i.  179,  303,  304. 

—  the  five  kings  of  the  Confucians, 
Yih,  Shoo,  She,  Le  Ke,  and  Cbun* 
Tsew,  i.  179,  303,  304. 

—  kingship,  ii.  39,  255. 

—  words  for,  ii.  255. 
Kingsborough,  Lord,  i.  317. 
Kingsley,  ii.  218. 

Rinnan",    number    cf    Parsis    b,  i 

159. 

Aitras.  ii.  129. 
Klaproth.  i.  261. 
Klemm  (Dr.  Gustav),  ii.  269. 
<cAe'os  (sravas,  cluo),  i.  259. 
(cXriroi,  ii.  100  n.  1. 
Klotho,  ii.  152. 


INDEX. 


S81 


KNI 
Knig'aton,  History  of  Ceylon,  i.  251 

n.  1. 

Knobel,  i.  140  n  1. 
know,  to,  ii.  249,  250. 
Koijush  (Knljush,  Kolosh),  i.  334. 
Ko-Io-keou-Io  (Riihula),  i.  258. 
Kolosh  (Kaljush,  Koijush), i.  334. 

KoA.n-09,  ii.  79. 

KW.UT),  ii.  40.  ^ 

Kon ungfr,  Kongr,  ii.  255. 

Keippen  (Die  Religion  des  Buddha), 

i.  190  n.  1. 
Koran.  Pr.  xii.,  xiv. ;  i.  6, 13,  22, 179, 

372. 

Koriaks  in  Kamtschatka,  ii.  277  n. 
Kbros,  Csoma  de,  i.  186.  189,  190, 

192. 

Kosala,  i.  213. 
kraal,  ii.  209,  214. 
Krapf,  i.  301. 
Kravya-ad  (xpea^-fSia),  ii.  44. 

Kpeio'/idyot,  11.  44. 

Kriemhilt,  ii.  107, 110. 

Kri«asva,  i.  96. 

Krishna,  ii.  75,  307. 

Kritavirya,  ii.  332. 

Kronos,  i.  91,  237,  355;  ii.  11,  70 

n.  1. 
Kp<5i-09,     KpcmW,    Kpon'Sijs,    ii.     150, 

151. 
Kshatriya,  i.  204,  206,  259;  ii.  297, 

321,  329-333,  335-340,  342,  346, 

353. 

—  Buddha  bv  birth  a  — ,  5.  206. 

—  expressed  in  Chinese  by  Tchali,  i. 
259. 

—  color  of  the  —  is  red,  ii.  321. 

—  the  cause  of  their  destruction,  ii. 
332,  333. 

—  Manu  was  by  birth  a  Ea^anya  or 
— ,  ii.  335. 

—  Vivasvat,  the  father  of  Mann,  is 
called  the  seed  of  all  the  — ,  ii. 
335. 

kshayathira,  ii.  38. 

kuce,  ii.  42. 

KuAic  races,  .  233  n.  2. 

Kufah,  i.  92. 

Kuhn,  i  83  n.  1, 132  n.  1, 133  n.  1; 
ii.  27  n.  2,  47  n.  1,  48  n.  1,  61  n.  1, 
83  n.  1,  90  n.  1,  93  n.  1,  100  n.  1, 
103  n.  1,  108  n.  1,  137  n.  2,  139, 
165  n.  1,  172,  175, 177,  185  n.  3, 
197-199,  203,  204. 

—  Zeitschrift      fur      vergleichende 
Sprachforschung,  i.  83  n.  1,  132 


LAN 

n.  1,  133  n.  1;  ii.  27  n.  2,  47  n 

1,  61  n.  1,  83  n.  1, 108  n.  1,  139. 

165  n.  1,  172  n.  2,  175,  177, 185 

n.  3. 
Kuhn,  Die  Herabkunft  des  Feuers.  ii. 

103  n.  1, 197. 
kula,  caste,  ii.  297. 
Kulins,  ii.  345. 
Kirna  (ground),  ii.  43. 
Kurukshetra,  ii.  101. 
Kushrta  (embodiment  of  Soma).  ii 

201-203. 

Kusika,  royal  race  of  the,  ii.  333. 
Kusinagara,  i.  210,  213. 
Kusti,  i.  164. 
Kutsa,  i.  32. 
kwety-s,  ii.  43. 
A'yavana,  ii.  124. 
Kv<av,  ii.  42,  183. 
Kyrene,  myth  of,  ii.  68. 

AAA2,  ii.  11. 
Laban,  i.  363. 
Laboulaye,  i.  217. 
Lacedogna.  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Lachesis,  ii.  152. 

Aa^vcs,  \a\vri,  ii.  45. 

lacruma,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

Ladon,  ii.  157. 

Lafontaine,  fables  de,  ii.  225,  230. 

Lalos,  ii.  164,  165. 

>a«u'.  to  bark,  ii.  183. 

Lakonic,  ii.  128. 

lal,  ii.  261. 

Lalita-Vistara  (Life  of  Buddha),  L 

197,  202,  205,  210,  254  n.  3. 
Lama  of  Thibet,  i.  187, 190. 
lana,  ii.  47. 
Landresse,  i.  257. 
Lane,  i.  132. 
Language  of  the   Achnemenians,  L 

79,  85. 

—  nature  of  the  Chinese,  i.  290. 

—  former  divisions  of,  i.  21. 

—  families  of,  i.  22. 

—  German,  ii.  62. 

—  history    of  the    German,    ii.    tt 
n.  1. 

—  no  nnw  — ,  ii.  253. 

—  monosyllabic,  i.  22. 

—  Kssav  on  the  Origin  of,  i.  333. 

—  science  of,  Pr.  xi.,  xix.,  xxi.;  ii. 
244,  248,  252,  253,  257,  260. 

—  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  (Max 
Miiller),  ii.  39  n.  2,  43  n.  1,  93  n. 
1, 129  n.  1. 


382 


INDEX. 


LAN 

Language,  Semitic,  i.  337  n.  1. 

—  survey    of   (M.    Miiller),   i.   233 
n.  1. 

—  Turanian,  ii.  71  n.  1, 176  n-  1. 

—  Veda,  language  and    rainmar  of 
the,  ii.  301. 

laniger,  ii.  173,  178. 

Lankavatara,  translated  by  Burnouf, 

i.  279  n.  3. 
Laomedon,  ii.  112. 
>aoj,  ii.  11,26,  165  n.  1,185. 
Lao-tse,  Pr.  xiii.,  xxvi.;  i.  50, 53,184, 

212,  254,  263,  289. 

—  followers  of,  i.  212  n.  1. 

—  religion  of,  Pr.  xiii.;  i.  184. 

—  works  of,  i.  263. 
XOL  .  ip>i,  ii.  165  n.  1. 
Lapland,  ii.  8,  237,241,  263. 

—  rubbing  of  noses,  salutation  in  the 
—  Alps,  ii.  261. 

Laps,  i.  233  n.  2. 
Las  Casas,  i.  318. 

Lassen,  i.  85,  88.  127, 128, 183,  202, 
260,  292,  2i)6,  338;  ii.  24, 185  n.  1. 
Latin  grammarians,  i.  237. 

—  old,  ii.  53. 

Latmian  cave,  ii.  78,  80,  83. 

Latinos,  ii.  78,  80. 

Latona,  ii.  80. 

Lauer  (Svstem  of  Greek  Mythology), 

ii.  79  n.  2,  139. 
lautia,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Law,  ancient  (Mr.  Maine),  ii.  256. 
Laws  of  Kaliyuga,  written  by  Para> 

sara,  ii.  348. 

—  of  Manu,  i.  17,  50,67;    ii.   299, 
302,  304,  337,  339,  347. 

—  old  Sutras,  or  law  books,  ii.  302. 
Lazarus,  Prof.,  ii.  262. 
Lecompte,  Pr.  xv. 

Aeyei,.,  ii  70. 

I«gendarv  history  of  India,  ii.  299. 
Legends,  "i.  192  n.  1 ;  ii.  154-169, 195, 
210,  242,  243,  258,  311. 

—  Aryan,  ii.  243. 

—  Basuto,  ii.  210. 

—  German,  ii.  169. 

—  Greek  ii.  154-169. 

•—  Indo-European,  ii.  242. 

—  and  theories  of  ihe  Buddhists  (Sp. 
Hardy),  i.  192  n.  1. 

l,egerlotz,  i.  83  n.  1;  ii.  93  n.  1. 
Legge,  James  (The  Chinese  classics 

edited  by),  i.  300  n.  1,  301,  302, 

303. 


LHC 

Legra'id  d'Aussy,  ii.  273. 
A«o    .1.  27  n.  1. 
Leis,  Jacob  son  of,  i.  94. 
Le  Ke  (Record  of  Kites,  fourth  king) 

i.  303.  304. 

Leontophontes,  ii.  184. 
Leophontes  (A«oi£<5vn)s),  ii.  165  n.  1, 

184,  185, 186. 

Lepsius,  Dr.  (alphabet  of),  ii.  216. 
Leto,  ii.  80. 
Lettish,  ii.  26,  42. 
Lcukadian  mountains,  ii.  88. 
Leukippides,  ii.  91. 

Lewis,"srrG!'c.ri.'327;  ii.  265. 
Lewis,  account  of  the  belief  of  tb« 

Mandans.  ii.  265. 
Lhassa,  i.  189,  261. 
Libya,  Kyrene  in,  ii.  68. 
Lichadian  islands,  ii.  88. 
Lie-has,  ii.  88. 
lib,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Linus,  i.  73. 

lip,  to  anoint,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
A;™,  fat,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
AYoxo;,  ii.  166  n.  1, 184  n.  1. 
Lita?,  ii.  70. 
Lithuanian,  i.  80;  ii.  18, 19, 21, 28  n. 

1,  30,  37,  38,  40,  42-44,  51,  61, 100, 

224,  323. 
Littre,  i.  186. 
Livre    des    Sauvages,  i.    309,  311, 

317. 
Livre  des  Lumieres,  compose1  par  le 

Sage  Biipay.  ii.  226. 
Llewellvn,  Prince  L.,  and  his  hound 

Gellert,  ii.  229. 
Lobeck,  ii.  14  n.  4  (Aglaophamus), 

177  n.  1  (De  Prothesi  et  Aphse- 

resi ). 

lo-che  (rar/as,  dust),  i.  298. 
Logos,  Pr.  xxviii. 
Ao-yos,  ii.  69. 
Lohrasp.  i.  147. 
Lok,  Loki.  ii.  107,  233. 
loky-s,  ii.  42. 
Ionian,  loma.-iya,  ii.  173. 
Longobardi,  Jesuit,  Pr.  xvi. 
Lord  of  the  azure  surface,  i.  329. 
—  of  the  green  planisphere,  i.  329. 
lorica,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Lotus  de  la  bonne  Loi  (Burnouf),  i 

218  n.  1,  244  n.  1,  249  n.  1,  250  a 

1,  277. 

Lubbock,  Sir  J.,  ii.  29  n.  1. 
Latino,  i.  %8;  ii.  75. 


INDEX. 


LUC 

lucru,  lucrum,  ii.  63. 
Ludlow,  Major,  ii.  37  n.  2. 
Luna,  i.  358;  ii.  75. 
Lunar  race,  ii.  78. 

—  zodiac  (Xakshatra),  i.  112. 

Lun  Yu  (conversations  between  Con- 
fucius and  his  disciples,  lirst  Shoo), 
i.  304,  306. 

luo,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

lupus,  ii.  42. 

Lutheran  missions  in  India,  ii.  301. 

Lycia,  ii.  08,  73. 

—  Apollo   falsely    called    son    of 

(Aviojye»<TJs),  ii.  73. 

Lycurgus,  Lvkurgos,  i.  72;  ii.  11. 
Lyell,  Sir  C.,  ii.  221. 

\.Vxr)yevrj<;,  ii.  73. 

AUKOS,  ii.  42. 
lymphis,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

TV/f  A,  to  fashion,  ii.  22. 

JM     Mabillon,  ii.  212. 

Mac,  ii.  63. 

Macedonian    conquest  (occupation) 

of  Persia,  i.  89,  95. 
MacLennan,  J.    F.   (On    Primitive 

Marriage),  i.  4  n.  1 ;  ii.  260. 
MacPhie  of  South  Uist,  ii.  239,  242. 
madhu,  ii.  172. 
Madhusudana,  ii.  336. 
Madras,  ii.  301,  309,  310,  350. 

—  Correspondence  between  an  ortho- 
dox Brahman  and  the  Editor  of  a 
native  newspaper  at  — ,  ii.  309- 
314. 

mag,  ii.  63. 

Magadha,  i.  194,  210-212,  221,  296; 
ii.  342. 

—  Caste  of  the  Magadhas,  ii.  342. 
magath-s,  ii.  63. 

Magian,   Pr.   xxx.;    i.    23    (sacred 

books  of  the  — ),  117  (religion). 
Miigism,  i.  48,  148. 
magus  (son),  ii.  63. 
Mahiibharata,  i.  50,  67,  83, 155,  279; 

ii.  125,  321  (about  the  color  of  the 

Indian  castes). 
Malifuleva,  ii.  75. 
Malifuifima.  compiler  of  the  Mahil- 

vansa,  i.  196. 
M:\liasena,  i.  196. 
Mahavansa,  i.  191, 196,  252. 

—  history  of  Ceylon.  191. 
Mahcndra,  Parasurama  retires  to,  ii. 

332. 
Mahi,  ii.  72. 


MAS 

Mahimata,  ii.  108  n.  1. 
Mahinavat,  ii.  27. 
Maliinda,  son  of  Asoka,  i.  194, 195. 
Mahmud  the  Great  (Gaznevide),  L 

94. 

Mahommed,  see  Mohammed. 
Mahratti,  ii.  320. 
Malirchen,  i.  331;  ii.  154,  196,197. 

208,  221-223,  233,  258,  268. 
Maid,  ii.  03. 
Maigrot,  Pr.  xvi. 
Main,  K.,  i.  111. 
Maine,  Mr.  (on  Ancient  Law),  ii. 

256. 
Maitri,  love,  all  virtues  spring  from, 

i  2!8. 

makhshi,  ii.  42. 
Maxpo?,  ii.  66. 
makshika,  ii.  42. 
Malabar,  i.  271;  ii.  172,  314,  350. 

—  coast,  i.  271 ;  ii.  172. 

—  law  on  marriage  in,  ii.  314. 
Malacca,  i.  302. 

Malay,  i.  22,  57;  ii.  260,  205,  280. 

—  islands,  language  of  the,  i.  22. 

—  peninsula,  ii.  200,  280. 

—  stories    from    the  —  districts    ii. 
205. 

—  wild  tribes  of  the,  ii.  200. 
Malavo-Polvnesians,  ii.  205. 
Malcolm,  Sir  John,  i.  100. 
Malika  (King),  i.  359. 
/oiaAAo?,  ii.  177  n.  1. 
maluna-s,  ii.  44. 

Man.  ii.  193,  278.  318,  331. 

—  Ainos  or  Hairy  Men,  ii.  277  n. 
1. 

—  Men  created  out  of  an  ash-tree, 
ii.  193. 

—  the  Creation  of  the  Gods  was  « 
prelude  to  the  creation  of,  ii.  331 

Manah,  i.  372. 

Mandakini,  ii.  120. 

Maw/ala,  ii.  175. 

Mandan's  belief  in  a  future  state,  ii. 

265. 

Mandshu,  i.  192. 
Manes,  ii.  200. 
Manetho,  i.  321. 
Mani,  i.  219. 
Manichseans,  i.  219. 
Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Parseea, 

The  (bv  Dadabhai  Naoroji),  L  168 

n.  1,  161. 

On,  ii.  248-283. 

Mannhardt,  ii.  197. 


384 


INDEX. 


Map 
Mams,  ii.  88. 

Mantra  (hymn),  i.  10,  105,  107,  111; 

ii.  280,  3"14. 
Manu,  i.  17,  27.  50,  67,  83,  92,  347; 

ii.  36  n.  1,  37  n.  1,  99  n.  1,  126  n. 

1,299,  302,  304,  305,  315,  316,  322, 

329,  335,  337,  339-342,  347,  348. 

—  by   bir.h   a   Rayanya  or    Ksha- 
trfya,  ii.  335. 

—  the  father  of  Manu  was  Vivasvat, 
ii.  335. 

—  hymns  of,  i.  27. 

—  laws  of,  i.  17,  50,  67,  347;  ii.  299, 
302,  304,  337,  339,  340,  348. 

Manuscrit  Pictographique  AmeYicain 
(by  Abbe"  Domenech),  i.  309,  310, 
317  n.  1. 

manushya-deva  (human  god),  Brah- 
man, ii.  331. 

MaimsXritra,  i.  151. 

Maol  a  Chliobain,  ii.  212. 

mfira,  i.  205. 

Marco  Polo  passing  through  China, 
ii.  272. 

mare,  ii.  48. 

marei,  ii.  48. 

Maria,  i.  310. 

Manias  (our  Lord),  i.  359. 

Marpeesa,  ii.  69. 

Marriage,  i.  4  n.  1;  ii.  260,  307,  309, 
312-315,  318,  337,  340,  341. 

—  on  Primitive  (bv  MacLennan),  i. 
4n.  1;  ii.  230. 

—  Marriages  prohibited  not  only  by 
caste,   but    also   by  pedigree,  ii. 
345. 

Mars  (Marut),  i.  25,  30,  355. 
Martinez,  i.  312. 
martya  (man),  ii.  27. 
mam  (desert),  ii.  48. 
Maruts  (storms),  i.  27,  34-36,  68,  98, 
354,  355;  ii.  200,  323,  327,  330. 

—  Brahman  created  bv,  ii.  330. 

—  hymn  to  the,  i.  34-36. 

—  Indra  with   the   host  of  the,   ii. 
327. 

Mary,  stories  of  the  Virgin,  ii.  207. 
Massachusetts  language,  translation 

of  the  Bible  in  the,  i.  316. 
MatAnga,  i.  254. 
malar,  ii.  21,  22. 
Matarisvan,  i.  28,  238,  362. 
/narr)v,  ii.  177  n.  1. 
mater,  ii.  21,  108  n.  1. 
mathair,  ii.  21. 
aiali,  ii.  21. 


MEX 

Maudgalyavana,  disciple  of  Buddha, 
i.  212. 

Maurice's  Lectures  on  the  Religion 
of  the  World,  i.  21. 

Maury  (Histoire  de?  Religions  de  la 
Grece  antique),  ii.  144,  145. 

Maya,  i.  91. 

Maya,  Mayadev!,  Mayavati,  i.  206, 
215. 

Mazdao,  i.  124. 

Mazdiashna  Religion,  i.  e.  the  Wor- 
ship of  God,  i.  169,  172,  173. 

Media,  i.  79,  84;  ii.  168. 

Median,  ii.  167,  168. 

—  dynasty,  ii.  168. 

—  king,  ii.  167. 

Medics  (Melicse),  ii.  184  n.  1. 
meditor,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Medusanim  monstrum,  ii.  178. 
Meghrab,  mathematicians  of  the,  ii. 

292. 

mel,  mellis,  ii.  172. 
fi.e\$uv,  ii.  177  n.  1. 
Meleager,  ii.  106,  169. 

MeAeraw,  166  n.  1,  184  n.  1. 

melin,  ii.  44. 
Memnon,  ii.  84,  103. 
Mencius,  i.  55,  304,  306  n.  1. 

—  fourth  Shoo,  the  work  of,  i.  304. 
Mene  (the  moon),  ii.  73. 
Menelaos,  ii.  9,  77. 

Menenius,  i.  96. 
Menostios,  ii.  182. 
Mensa  Pythagorea,  ii.  285. 
Mercury,  i.  219. 
Merv,  i.  95. 
Me>y,  Mr.,  ii.  36  n.  1. 
Meshech,  i.  145. 

Metaphysics,  i.  280,  281 ;  ii.  76 
n.  1. 

—  of  Aristotle,  ii.  76  n.  1. 

—  Abhidharma,  Buddhist  system  (or 
Basket)  of— ,  i.  280,281. 

Metempsychosis,  i.  44,  199. 

—  not  in'the  Veda,  i.  44. 
jurJTTjp,  ii.  21,  22,  74. 
metre,  i.  82,  83;  ii.  261. 
Mexican,  i.  51,  317,  318,  321;  ii.  248 

n.  1,  270. 

—  hieroglyphics,  published  by  Lord 
Kingsborough,  i.  317. 

—  nature  of  the  ancient  —  writing 
i.  321. 

—  representation  of  an  eclipse  of  tha 
moon,  ii.  269. 

Mexico,  Pr.  xiii.;  i.  309,  816,  317 


INDEX. 


385 


MEX 

320,  321,  323,  334:   ii.  248  n.  1, 

269. 
Mexico  and  the  Mexicans  (by  Ty- 

lor),  ii.  248  n.  1. 
Miau-tze  (soil  children),  ii.  272. 
inicco,  ii.  42. 
Michel,  F.,  ii.  273. 
Middle  Ages,  Guilds  of  the,  ii.  343. 

—  ancient  stories  of  the,  fi.  164. 
Mignet,  i.  186. 

Mileoin,    i.    341    (worshippers    of), 

359. 

Mi-le,  family  of,  i.  272. 
Miletos,  it.  09. 
Milinda,   Dialogue   between  —  and 

Nagasena,  i.  285,  286. 
mill,  millstone,  ii.  43,44. 
rnille,  ii.  51. 
Milman,  Dean,  i.  282. 
Mimamsa  school,  philosophers  of  the, 

ii  336. 

Mimir,  ii.  204. 
Minerva,  i.  30;  ii.  162. 
Ming-ti,  Emperor,  i.  254. 
Minnefiinger,  i.  16. 
Minokliired,  i.  91. 
Minos,  ii.  68,  99  n.  1. 
Minyans,  the,  ii.  68. 
Missionaries,  Baptist  —  in   Seram- 

pore,  i.  301. 

—  Buddhist,  i.  192. 

—  Christian,  ii.  280. 

_  —  preaching  against  caste,  ii.296. 

—  Icelandic  ( —  in  Iceland),  ii.  189, 
190. 

—  Jesuit,  ii.  278. 

in  India  and  China,  i.  301. 

in  India,  ii.  304,  305. 

—  Protestant,  ii.  349. 

—  Roman  Catholic,  ii.  349. 

—  We.' ley  an  —  in  Ceylon,  i.   192, 
217,  301. 

Missions  in  India,  Lutheran,  ii.  301. 
Mistletoe,  ii.  201,  204  (healing  virtue 

of  the). 

Mitchell,  J.  Murray,  i.  87  n.  1. 
llitra,  i.  27,  28,  43,  91,  235,  362;  ii. 

<?5,  99. 
Mlefc/Ma,  the  Veda  published  by  a, 

ii.  305. 
mlyn,  ii.  44. 
Mnaseas,  ii.  70  n.  1. 
Mnemosyne,  ii.  105. 
Moallaka  of  Zoheyr,  i.  372. 
Mobed  (priest  of  the  Parsis),  i.  166. 
Modern  i'arsis,  i.  158-178. 

VOL.  ii  25 


MOR 

Modjmil,  ii.  168. 
Moe,  ii.  217. 
Moflat,  i.  301. 

Mohammed.  Pr.  xii.;  i.  91,  182. 184 
215,  367,  372. 

—  doctrine  of,  i.  91. 

—  the  Expected,  i.  215. 

—  successors  of — ,  i.  182. 
Mohammed  ben   Ibrahim   Alfazari, 

translator  of  the    Siddhanta    of 
Brahmagupta,  ii.  289. 
Mohammedan,  Controversies  of  the 
Brahmans  with  the,  ii.  304. 

—  Hindu  converts  admitted  into  — 
society,  ii.  351. 

—  conquest  of  India,  i.  256. 

—  Number  of,  i.  158,  212  n.  1. 

—  Paradise,  i.  287. 

—  Persia,  conquest  of,  i.  95.  171. 

—  Spain,  invasion  of,  ii.  285,  288. 
Mold's  edition  of  the  Shahuanieh,  i. 

92. 

Moksha,  deliverance  of  the  soul  from 
all  pain  and  illusion,  i.  279. 

mola,  ii.  44. 

mollis,  ii.  172. 

Moloch,  i.  341  (worshippers  of),  359. 
360. 

Mommsen,  i.  23  n.  1. 

Momos.  ii.  64. 

Monachism.  Spence  Hardy  on  East- 
ern, i.  192. 

Monedo,  i.  315. 

Mongolia,  i.  187,  190, 197,  234,  287. 

—  Buddhist  literature  of,  i.  197. 

—  View  of  Nirvana  in,  i.  287. 
Mongolian,  i.  190  (language,  versi<  a 

of  the  Buddhist  canon),  192,  198, 

260. 

Mongolia  tales,  ii.  2GG. 
Monmouth,  Geoffrey  of,  i.  195. 
Monosvllabic  (Chinese)  language,  i. 

22,  257. 
Monotheism,  i.  27,  28,  337-374. 

—  Semitic,  i.  337-374. 
monstrum  Medusa-urn,  ii.  178. 

—  villosum,  ii.  178. 
month,  i.  43. 

Moon,  myths  and  names  of  the,  i 
235;  ii.  73,  79,  83. 

—  representation  of  an  r.clipse  of  the 
ii.  269. 

—  worshippers  of  the,  i.  341. 
more,  ii.  48 

Morgen,  ii.  90. 
Morley,  David,  ii.  291. 


386 


INDEX. 


MOB 

Moros,  li.  64. 

Morrison,  i.  261. 

Mortal,  gods  in  Iceland,  ii.  190. 

Mosaic,  i.  125  (religion),  131  (cos- 
mogony by  Browne),  334. 

Moses,  Pr.  xii.,  xxvi. ;  i.  45, 125, 132, 
133, 142,  343.  364-367;  ii.  2d7. 

—  God  of,  i.  367. 

—  sacred  records  of,  Pr.  xii. 
Moses  of  Khorene,  i.  99;  ii.  168. 
Mosul,  i.  92. 

mother,  ii.  21,  39. 

mother-in-law,  ii.  29. 

mouse  (mush,  f*0s,  uius,  mus,  mysz), 

1.  77;  ii.  42. 
Movers,  Pr.  xii. 
mri,  to  die.  ii.  48. 
nu-iilu,  ii.  172. 

Mrityu,  ii     181,    330    (created    by 

Brahman), 
mucha,  ii.  42. 
Muir,  Dr.  J.,  Original  Sanskrit  Texts, 

published  by,  i.  19  n.  1,  41  n.  1,46 

n.  1,  47  n.  1 ;  ii.  295  n.  1,  317,  321, 

330,  334,  335. 
muir,  ii.  48. 

mukta  (unconditioned),  i.  225. 
muli.  ii.  44. 

Muller,  H.  D.,  Ares  by,  ii.  70  n.  1. 
Muller,  Max,  Essav  on  Comparative 

Mythology,  i.  239  n.  2. 

—  History  of  Ancient  vSanskrit  Lit- 
erature^ i.  10  n.  1,  362  n.  2,  373  n.  1. 

—  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Lan- 
guage, ii.  39  n.  2,  43  n.  1,  92  n.  1, 

2,  129  n.  1. 

—  Letter  to  Chevalier  Bunsen,  ii.  71 
n.  1, 176  n.  1. 

—  Survey  of  Languages,  i.  233  n.  1. 

—  Todtenbestattung  bei  den  Brah- 
manen,  i.  31  n.  1;  ii.  36  n.  1. 

Muller,  Otfried,  on  the  Eunienides, 
ii.  70  n.  1. 

—  Prolegomena    zu    einer   wissen- 
schaftlichen  Mythologie,  ii.  14  n. 
1,  IB  n.  1 

mus,  mus,  i.  77;  ii.  42. 

musca,  ii.  42. 

Muses,  the,  ii.  66. 

mush,  niashika  (mus),  i.  77:   ii. 

42. 
Musur-dabagban  mountains,  i.  266. 

Slid,  ii.  42. 

Mykense,  ii.  112. 
lu/Xi),  ii.  44. 
trie,  ii.  42. 


NAN 

Mysticism,  Christian  —  of  EckhanS 

and  Tauler,  i.  277. 
Mystics,  i.  225. 
Myth,  see   Apollo,  Daphne,  Endy- 

mion,  Herakles,  Kephalos,  Selene, 

etc. 

Mvthological  (Mythopoeic)  Age.  ii  9. 
Mythology,  i.  148,  233  n.  2,  311,  ii. 

1-155,  159,  222,  241,  258,  259. 

—  of  Central  America,  i.  311. 

—  Aryan  — ,  ii.  83,  257. 

—  Comparative,  ii.  1-141,  222,  241. 

—  Finnish,  i.  233  n.  1. 

—  German  (Teutonic),  ii.  13  n.  l,67f 
79  n.  1,  81,  85  n.  1,  259. 

—  Greek,  ii.  14  n.  4,  79  n.  2,  82, 142- 
153. 

—  Hindu,  ii.  75. 

—  Manual  of—  (Cox),  ii.  154,  155, 
159. 

—  Nursery  Tales,  the  patois  of  the 
ancient  mythology,  ii.  258. 

—  Philosophy  of  (Schelling),  ii.  144. 

—  of  the  Puronas,  ii.  75. 

—  of  the  Veda,  ii.  75. 
Mythopa-ic  (or  Mythological)  Age, 

"ii.  9,  21,  52. 
pvdot,  ii.  69,  81. 

"V["A  instead  of  na  (no),  i.  298. 

-L^    —  na,  suffix,  ii.  173. 

nahh,  ii.  45. 

nabhas  (nabha),  i.  298. 

nabha,  nabhi,  ii.  45. 

naca,  ii.  48. 

nacho,  ii.  48. 

Nachor,  i.  363. 

nadh,  ii.  45. 

Nadi  (river),  i.  27. 

Naeke  (Opusc.),  ii.  170  n.  2. 

Nagasena,  Dialogue  betweer  Miliuda 

and,  i.  285,  286. 
nah  (nabh,  nadh),  ii.  45. 
nalian.  ii.  45.  - 

Nali  uas,  migrations  of  the,  i.  327. 
Nahuatl,  ancient   written   i.u  gua^t 

of  Mexico,  i.  323. 
nak,  nas  (nox),  i.  77. 
nakis,  ii.  27. 

Nakshatras,  Lunar  Zodiac,  i.  113. 
Nami,  i.  32. 
Namu/n,  i.  32;  ii.  186. 
nanandar,  ii.  29. 
Nandas,  Dynasty  of  the,  i.  14. 
Nanna,  ii.  109. 


INDEX. 


387 


NAO 

Saoroji,  Dadabhai,  i.  158  n.  1  (the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  Par- 
sees,  The  Parsee  Keligion),  101, 
163,  KM,  160-168,  169,  174  (Guze- 
rati  Catechism  translated  by). 

napat,  ii.  31,  79. 

—  a  pain  napat  =  the  sun,  ii.  79. 
napti,  ii.  31. 

Narada,  messenger  of  Indra,  ii.  124. 

Niirada,  ii.  33  n.  1. 

na»,  night,  nox.  i.  77. 

Nasrallah,  ii   225. 

Nastika  (Nihilist),  i.  281. 

National  Period  of  Language,  ii.  12. 

Nature,  i.  226,  360;  ii.  147  (worship 

of). 

natus,  ii.  28,  72. 
naus,  nfivas,  ii.  48. 
nava,  ii.  51. 
navan,  ii.  45. 
Navarette,  Pr.  xvi. 
Navarre,  Couvade  in,  ii.'273. 
navis,  ii.  48. 
iiavva/j,  ii.  200. 
Navadi,  a  Brahman  defiled  by  a,  ii. 

350. 

Nayer,  a  Sfidra,  ii.  350, 
Neander,   History   of  the   Christian 

Church,  i.  219  n.  1,276,  278. 
Nebo,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 
ve/?pi's,  ii.  8li  n.  1. 
necto,  ii.  45. 
nefo.  ii.  31. 

Nemaean  lion,  ii.  182. 
Namesis,  ii.  64. 
ueo,  ii.  45. 
vi»,  ii.  45. 
Neophytus,  mathematical  works  of, 

ii.  292. 
Neo-l'ythagorean,  ii.  286-291. 

—  The  Arabs  received  their  figures 
from  the,  ii.  290. 

—  Boethius  ascribed  nine  figures  to 
the,  ii.  285-288. 

—  Indian  figures  adopted  by  the,  ii. 
288. 

—  Inventors  of  ciphering,  ii.  286. 

—  Nought  (0)  known  to  the,  ii.  290. 

—  Schools  of  the,  ii.  280,  289-291. 
Nepal,  Buddhists  of,  i.  277,  —  to,  ii. 

339. 

—  Buddhist  writings  of,  i.  282. 

—  Canonical  books  of,  i.  249  n.  1. 

—  School  of  the  Svabhavikas  in,   . 
278. 

nepos,  neptis,  ii.  31. 


NIB 

Nereus,  ii.  162. 

Nergal,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 

Nenman,  i.  95. 

Nerioseiigh,  i.  96,  134. 

Nerval,  (Jerard  de,  ii.  36  n.  1. 

vTjtfw,  ii.  45. 

Neumann,  C.  F.,  i.  244  n.  1  (Cat* 

cliism  of  the  Shamans),  281. 
Newdegate,  Mr.,  ii.  349. 
New  Holland,  i.  42  n.  1 ;  ii.  267. 

—  representation   of  the  evil  spirit 
with  horns  and  tail  in  — ,  ii.  2U7. 

New  Hollander,  ii.  267  (belief  in  a 

heaven  and  a  hell). 
New  Spain,  native  historians  of,  i. 

318. 
New  Zealander,  rubbing  of  noses, 

•way  of  salution  of  the,  ii.  261. 
niba  (beautiful),  i.  128. 
Nibelung,   Nibelunge,  ii.  108,  110. 

Ill,  187. 

—  heroes  of  the  — ,  ii.  187. 

—  written  down  at  the  end  of  th« 
12th  century,  ii.  110. 

Nibhaz,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 

nid,  to  .scoff,  ii.  27. 

Nidhoggr.ii.  205. 

Niebuhr,  i.  127,  214,  297,  327;  ii.41 
185  n.  2. 

Nit-pan  (Nirvana),  i.  259,  294. 

NiHheim,  Nirlhell,  ii.  194,  205. 

Niflung,  see  Nibelung. 

nift,  ii.  31. 

Nigada(Nivid),  i.  108. 

Nigban  (Nirvana),  i.  230. 

Nighanfu,  ii.  72. 

Night,  i.  77,  314  (symbolic  emblem 
of);  ii.  70  n.  1,  80,"83, 135,  152,  232 

Nihilism,  i.  230,  243,  280  ( Buddhism 
not  free  from  the  charge  of'—),  281 

Nihilist,  i.  284. 

Nihilistic  philosophers,  i.  286. 

Ni/im'vas  (suniimim  bonum),  i.  27 1. 

Nineveh,  1'r.  xii.  (monuments  o.  ), 
i.  5,  76,  2f!7,  374;  i  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions of  Babylon  and  — ),  ii. 
280  (sculptures  of). 

nine,  ii.  224. 

Nirang  (urine  of  ox,  cow,  or  she- 
goat),  i.  16:3-165. 

Niruktit,  i.  75;  ii.  98  n.  2  (published 
by  Hoth),  181  n.  1. 

Nirvana,  i.  213,  227-230,  245,  246- 
249,  250,  259,  276-287, 294. 

—  blowing  out,  extincticn  of 
i.  279. 


388 


INDEX. 


KB 

Nirvana,  the  meaning  of — ,  i.  276- 
287. 

—  four  stages  of  meditation  before, 
i.  249. 

Nirvata  (calm,  without  wind),  i.  279 

n.  2. 
Nirvritti  (cessation,  passiveness),  i. 

278,  279. 

nisa,  nox,  vv£.  i.  77. 
Nishadas,  guild  of  fishermen,  ii.  342. 
Nisroch,  Pr.  xii. ;  (image  of),  i.  341 

(worshippers  of). 
niun,  ii.  51. 

Nivid(Nigada).  i.  107-110. 
Noah,  i.  150,  151,  155. 
foeu,  ii.  85. 
vofj-nt  ii-  27  n.  1. 
noinen,  i.  354. 
nomina  and  numina,  i.  83. 
Nornes,  the  three,  ii.  152,  205,  234. 
Norris,  Mr.,  ii.  294. 
Norse,  Old  — ,  ii.  42, 43,  79, 188,  260. 

—  tales,    ii.    154,    197,     237,     238 
(l)asent). 

—  Popular  Tales  from  the  — ,  ii.  217- 
236  (Dasent). 

Norsemen  in  Iceland,  the,  ii.  187-194. 
Northern  gods,  ii.  197. 

—  heavens,  ii.  227. 

—  hell  is  cold,  ii.  282. 

—  mythology,  ii.  201. 
Northmen,  i.  62;  of  Scandinavia,  ii. 

154. 
Norway,  ii.  188,  189,  191,  223,  226, 

237,  239. 
Norwegian  refugees,  ii.  189. 

—  storv  of  the  Master  Thief,  ii.  228. 

—  tafes,  ii.  223,  230. 

Noses,  rubbing  of,  custom  of  saluta- 
tion in  New  Zealand,  ii.  261. 

Nothing,  i.  229,  281. 

Notre  Dame  de  Grace,  i.  355. 

nought  (citron,  zephiro,  zero,  *unya), 
ii.  284,  289,  239,  294. 

novem.  ii.  51. 

Nri&akshas,  ii.  134. 

nuh,  ii.  224. 

numen,  i.  354;  ii.  76. 

Nuraenius,  ii.  290. 

Numerals,  ii.  49-51,  284-294. 

—  Sanskrit,  ii.  288-2J4. 

—  in  the  Bactro  Pali,  and  in  the  Ka- 
purdigiri  inscriptions,  ii.  293. 

Nunziata,  i.  355. 
nurus,  ii.  29. 

Nursery  tales,  ii.  206-216,  244  246, 
358  259. 


Nursery  tales,  comparison  cf  the  — 
of  Germany,  England,  and  India, 
ii.  244. 

—  Zulu,  ii.  206-216. 
Nushirvan,  i.  93,94;  ii.  229. 
Nyaya  philosophy,  ii.  303. 
VVKTO,  (»v{  j,  ii.  133. 

>»'05,  ii.  29. 

Nyx,  ii.  64,  66,  76. 

vvf  (i/uxTa),  i.  77;  ii.  133. 

OCTAVI ANUS,  ii.  229. 
octo,  ii.  51. 
Odin,  i.  183,  219,  240;  ii.  108,  189. 

190,  194,  231,  233,  234,  238,  259. 
— 'Robin  Hood  a  disguise  of  Wodan 
or— ,ii.  259. 

—  Sigurd,  descendant  of,  ii.  108. 

—  sons  of,  ii.  189. 
Odoacer,  ii.  110. 
odot,  ii.  184  n.  1. 

•05txr<7euy,  ii  9, 11,  166  n.  1, 184  n.  L 
CEdipus,  ii.  159, 165, 16G. 

—  Mr.   Bread's  explanation   of  th« 
myth  of,  ii.  165  n.  1. 

oi,  ii.  42. 

Oibareus,  i.  127. 

o!«a,  ii.  62;  oida,  ii.  249,  251. 

Oigour  Tartars,  i.  265. 

oiicelos,  ii.  30  n.  1. 

oucos,  ii.  38. 

oIvT),  ii.  51. 

oU,  ii.  42. 

Oizys,  ii.  64. 

Okeanos,  ii.  64. 

Okini,  Kingdom  of,  i.  267. 

OKTUI.  ii.  51. 

Oldneld,  Mr,  i.  42 n.  1;  ii.  266. 

olfacit,  ii.  184  n  1. 

Olympian,  i.  25,159,  239;  ii.  11,  M. 

—  fables,  i.  159. 

—  gods,  i.  25,  239 ;  ii.  66. 

—  mythology,  ii.  11. 

•OX.  a<7eu9,  ii.  166  n.  1, 184  n.  1. 

Om,  i.  203. 

Omar,  i.  93,  94.  171. 

<!>Ho!ia.yOL  (ciju.o«-e5<o),  ii.  44. 

Oneiroi,  ii.  64,  66. 

Onondajra  (Oswego  River),  i.  311. 

OKOS,  ii.  42. 

Ophir,  i.  145. 

Oppert,  Jul.,  i.  128,  266. 

—  theory  of  the  invention  (f  tb«  C* 
neiforin  letters,  i.  267. 

oppidum,  ii.  4(3. 
«,  ii.  85 


INDEX. 


389 


OPT 

Optimus  Maximus,  i.  358  (Jupiter), 

360. 

oradlo,  oralo,  ii.  43. 
orati,  ii.  43. 
Orcus,  ii.  53. 
Oreitliyia,  ii.  1. 
Oilent  und  Occident,  i.  23  n.  2;  ii. 

100  n.  1,  186  n.  1. 
Oriental  figures  and  Gobar  figures, 

ii.  287. 
Ormazd,  Ormuzd,  i.  24,  25,  116,  124, 

128,  136,  138,  146,  150,  152,  153, 

156,  158-160,  164,  167,  168,  170, 

171. 

—  Yasht,  i.  124. 
Oromazes  (Ormuzd).  i.  171. 
Orotal,  Orotulat.  i.  371. 
Orpheus,  i.  73;  ii.  99,  125,  126, 158, 

159,  179,  199. 
Orphic  hymns,  ii.  70  n.  1. 

—  line,  ii.  14. 
'Opeos,  ii.  182. 
'OpSpios,  ii.  183. 

oas,  cock,  ii.  183. 

oi]  (swallow),  ii.  183. 
i>pdpo{iu>v:  6p9po/<oi'TT)s,  ii.  183. 
Orthros  (op9po«),  ii.  182,  183. 
105,  IOTOS,  derivative  suffix,  ii.  130. 
osilu,  ii.  42. 

Ossianic  poems,  ii.  210  n.  1. 
Oswego  Kiver  (Onoudaga),  i.  311. 
Ovpavi-n,  i.  372. 

OvpactW,  H.  79. 

Oipa>"5c,  Ouranos,  i.  235;  ii.  65  n.  1, 

79, 153. 

ovis,  ovjza,  ii.  42. 
Ox,  ii.  42. 

(XTJKIJ  (Uvflayini),  ii.  290. 
Ozi-s,  ii.  42. 

"T)A  (to  protect),  root  from  which  is 

A     derived  father,  ii.  21,  22. 

Pachacamac,  i.  239. 

pad  (pada),  TTOUS,  pes,  i.  83  n.  1. 

pada,  ii.  43. 

Padan  Aram,  i.  364. 

padapaiikti,  name  of  a  metre,  i.  83 

n.  1. 

Pagan  religion,  i.  51,  52. 
—  world,  i.  236. 
pa.9as,  ii.  175. 

irayyeveriap,  ii.  88. 

Painless  tree,  i.  154. 
pala,  ii-  22. 

Palaca  flour,  i.  203  n.  1. 
Palaephatus,  ii.  182. 


PAB 

pa-laka,  ii.  22. 

Pali,  i.  191-195,  197,  198,  251  n.  1, 
260,  285,  295,  299. 

—  works  of  Ceylon,  i.  285. 

—  sacred  language  of  Ceylon,  i.  191. 
paltr.  ii.  28  n.  1. 

Pamir,  i.  146  (plain  of),  271  (plateau 
of). 

Pan,  ii.  157. 

Pandya  and  his  Fishflag,  storv  of,  ii 
311. 

Pangenetor,  ii.  112. 

Panini,  i.  83,  119,  294  (classic  San- 
skrit of),  ii.  98  n.  1. 

Pawis,  ii.  183. 

pafiA-u,  ii.  51. 

PaiUalas,  Pravahana  Caivali,  king 
of  tlie,  ii.  336. 

Pafil-atantra,  ii.  225,  229. 

pantha,  ii.  40,  47. 

Pantomimes,  Harlequin  of  our 
Christinas,  ii.  232. 

paotr  (boy),  not  putra,  ii.28  n.  1,  30. 

paotrez,  girl,  ii.  28  n.  1. 

papiilangi,  heaven  -  bursters,  name 
for  foreigners  in  Polynesia,  ii.  266. 

paper,  papier,  ii.  20. 

Papua,  Pr.  xxx.;  i.  59. 

Par  (root),  ii.22. 

Paradise,  serpent  in,  i.  153. 

—  of  the  Zoroastrians,  i.  153. 
paramita,  i.  204. 

Parasara,  grandchild  of  VasiahfAa, 
ii.  335. 

—  the  laws  of  the  Kaliyuga  written 
by,  ii.  348. 

parasu,  ii.  46. 

Parasurama,  great  hero  of  the  Brah- 

mans,  ii.  332,  333. 
Pare*,    the     (Jerman    (the    three 

Nornes),  ii.  152. 

—  Teutonic,  ii.  61. 
parens,  ii.  22. 

Par.yanya,  ii.  327,  328,  330  (created 
bv  Brahman). 

Parjanya,  Ueber  ( Biihler),  i.  23  n.  2. 

Pariah^  the  lowest  —  proud  to  pre- 
serve his  own  caste,  ii.  345. 

—  formerly  obliged  to  carry  a  bell  to 
give    warning  to  the  Brahmans, 
ii.  35C 

—  their  name  derived  from  that  bell, 
ii.  350. 

—  Brahmans  in  the  south  of  India 
as  black  as,  ii.  321. 

Paris  of  Troy,  ii.  164, 168. 


INDEX. 


FAB 

Parisbnd,  i.  297. 
Park,  ii.  238. 
parler  aux  yeux,  i.  312. 
rarwa}-a,  i.  32. 

Parsee,  Parsi,  of  Bombay  and  Yezd, 
i.  87,  135. 

—  language,  i.  91,  92,  115  n.  1, 118, 
134. 

—  life,  description  of,  i.  162,  163. 

—  religion  of  the,  i.  161. 

—  four  ages  of,  i.  150, 151. 
parsza-s,  ii.  42. 

Participle,  formation  of  the  Greek 

fern,  past,  ii.  133. 
Parvati,  ii.  75. 
™s,  ii.  67,  85. 

Past  ( Vurdh,  TO.  yeyovdra),  ii.  61,  152, 

205. 

pasu,  ii.  42. 

patar,  pater,  narijp,  ii.  21,  22,  74. 
pMth,  pathi,  pathas,  ii.  40,  47. 
n-dtfos,  ii.  47  n.  1. 
pad  ( husband ),patni,  ii.  37-39. 
Patois,  ii.  196,  258. 
jmros,  ii.  40. 
patria  potes.tas,  ii.  254. 
pattin,  ii.  37. 
paurusheyatva,   human  element   in 

revelation,  i.  18.    . 
Pausanias,  ii.  68,  69. 
pavana  (wind),  ii.  157,  254. 
pa-j'u,  ii.  22. 
Pazend,  i.  122. 

pecu,  pecus,  pecku,  ii.  25,  26,  42. 
pecudium,  ii.  25. 
peculiar,  peculium,  ii.  25. 
pecuiiia,  ii.  25. 
iriSov,  (pedum),  ii.  43. 
Pegasos,  ii.  1,  139, 175. 
Pelilevan,  i.  93. 
Pehlevi  or  Huzvaresh,  i.  89-91,  96, 

119-121,  134-138,   148,   169,   171, 

174;  ii.  225. 

—  translation  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  i. 
119,  120,  134,  136, 137, 169, 174. 

Peiren,  ii  170. 

Peleiades  of  Dodona,  i.  358. 

Peleus,  ii.  32. 

Penelope,  ii.  53, 193. 

penki,  ii.  51. 

ireVre,  ii.   51. 

n-evflo?,  ii.  47  n.  1. 

Period,  dialectical,  ii.  9, 12. 

—  mythological  (mythopoeic),  ii.  9, 
52. 

— national,  ii.  12. 


PIG 

Period,  Rhematic,  ii.  8. 

Trepxcoc,  ii.  86  n.  1. 

Perkunas,  i.  23. 
Persephone,  ii.  70  n.  1. 
Perseus,  ii.  159,  164,  166. 
Persia,  kings  of,  i.  95 ;  ii.  225 

—  language  of,  ii.  221,  252. 

—  literature  of;  ii.  3,  12. 
Persian  epic,  ii.  107. 

—  translation  of  the  Indian  falilea, 
ii.  225,  226. 

—  religion,  i.  92 ;  revival  of  the  — 
religion  and  literature,  i.  88. 

—  sun,  name  of,  ii.  167. 

Peru,  Pr.  xiii.;   (religion  of)  i.  236, 

239,  317. 
perum,  ii.  43. 
Peruvian,  ii.  112  n.  1. 
pes  (TTOU'S,  pad,  pada),  i.  83  n.  1. 
Peshawer  (Pou  -  lou  -  cha  -  pou  -  lo), 

Purushapura,  i.  268;  270. 
Peshdadian  dynasty,  i.  99. 
petora,  ii.  51. 
Petta  Pittei,  children  of  the  house, 

name  of  the  6'udras  in  Tamil,  ii. 

353. 
Petzholdt,  T.  (das  Buch  der  Wilden), 

i.  310  n.  1,  311. 
Phaedros  of  Plato,  ii.  1,  2, 14,  70. 

—  fables  in,  ii.  230. 

0ae./»a,  ii.  100  n.  1. 

Phainis,  epigram  on,  ii.  10. 

Pharmakeia,  ii.  1. 

Pharsalia  of  Lucan,  i.  23  n.  1. 

^eXco,  i.  96. 

MP,  i.  96. 

Philology  comparative,  n.  48   n.  1 

(Manual  of),  139  (Journal  of),  148, 

152,  224,  257. 
Philosophy,  Nyaya  Sankhya,Vedan- 

ta,  ii.  303. 
Philotes,  ii.  64. 
0<i/?os,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
Phoebus,  ii.  73,167;  Phoibos  Apol- 

lon,  ii.  83. 

phon,  phonies  (killer),  ii.  171. 
Phorkys,  ii  70  n.  1. 

<t>pa.rrjp,  ii.  21;  </>parpia,  ii.  39. 

<t>t)o>>ep6';,  <l>96vos,  ii.  177  n.  1. 

(pvia,   ii.  !  I- 

Pichardo's  collection  of   American 

MSS.,  i.  321. 
Pictet    (Les    Origines    Indo-Euro* 

pe"ennes),  ii.  32,  48  n.  1. 
Pig,  ii.  42. 
Pi^avana,  ii.  334. 


INDEX. 


391 


PIL 

Pilpav,  les  fables  de,  ii.  226. 
Pindar,  i.  3,  71,  240;  ii.  14,  70. 
Pippal    (Peepulj,    Pippala,  ii.  201- 

203,  223. 
Pishon,  i.  154. 
nia  pes,  ii.  51. 
pitar,  pitri,  ii  21,  22,  27. 
Pitris,  ii.  200,  202. 
Pitys  (pine-tree),  ii.  157,  158. 
Piyadasi,  i.  253. 

Planets,  worshippers  of  the,  i.  341. 
Planudes,  mathematical  works  of,  ii. 

2i>2. 
Plato,  Pr.  xxx.;  i.  90,  171;  ii.  2,  5, 

14,  138,  153,  231. 
Platonic  ideas,  ii.  76  n.  1. 
Plotinus,  ii.  295. 
Pluto,  ii.  109,  233. 

pod,  pons,  pont,  ponte,  puente,  ii.  20. 
pcena,  ii.  254. 
Poetry,  dramatic,  i.  16;  elegiac,    i. 

16;"  rhymed  —  in  Kngland,  i.  16- 
—  rhythmical,  ii.  261. 

iroiflv,  i.  132. 
TTOiV'!"  ^awv,  ii.  26. 

pole,  ii.  43. 

TroX  jnoto  ye /> "pen,  i.  133. 

1'oliars  or  Puliyars,  i.  e.  flesh  eaters, 

ii.  322. 
jroAtck,  ii.  47. 
jroAKj,  ii.  40. 
pol-lingo,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Polo-na!  (Benares),  i.  258. 
7ru>A<K,  ii.  42. 
TroA  <5e"K>i?,  ii.  100. 
Polvnesia,     Polynesian,    Pr.    xiv., 

xxxii.;  ii.  214,  215,  264,  266. 
Polyonomy,  ii.  71. 

jroXus,  iroXAoi,  ii.  171. 

Polytheism,  Pr.  xviii.  n.  1;  i.  26,  28. 

pomtis,  ii.  51. 

pons  (see  pod),  ii.  20,  40,  47. 

ponti,  ii.  40. 

Pontus,  Couvade  in  the,  ii.  279. 

ponttts,  7-orro?,  ii.  47,  79. 

Popu!  Vuh  (book  of  the  people),  i. 

30£  n.  1;  ii.  270 
pore,  rropKo?,  porcns,  ii.  42. 
Poseidon,  Uo<rfi5wi>,  ii.  32,  151. 
ird<ris,  ii.  37. 
potens,  ii.  37. 
potestas,  patria,  ii.  254,  255    regia, 

255. 

botis  (irons),  iroTwa,  ii.  37. 

Po-to  (Avadana),  i.  292. 


PBO 

Potri,  i.  106. 

Pott,  ii.  48  n.  1,  83  n.  1, 185,  186  n. 

3,  198. 
—  (Ktymologische      Forschungcn), 

48  n.  1,  186  n.  3. 
Pou-lou-cha-pou-lo     (Purushapura, 

Peshawer),  i.  268. 
Pounishaspa,  father  of  Zoroaster,  i. 

176. 

jroiis,  i.  83  n.  1. 
presidium,    praesiliutn,    praesul,    ii. 

184  n.  1. 

Prar/apati,  i.  30,  70,  71,  83  n.  1. 
Praryna-paramita,  (perfect  wisdom* 

i.'280,  283,  284. 
Pra&etas,  ii.  33  n.  1. 
Prakrit,  i.  295,  299;  ii.  120, 133. 
Prasenat/it,  king  of  Kosala,  i.  213 

246. 

Pratihartn,  i.  106. 
Pratyeka  Buddha,  i.  203,  285. 
Pravahana  6'aivali,  ii.  336. 
pravara  (caste),  ii.  297. 
Pravritti,  i.  278. 
Prayers,  Litre,  called  daughters  tf 

Zeus,  ii  70. 

—  of  immortality,  ii  263. 

Preller  (Greek  Mytliology),  ii.  14  n. 

4,  136  n.  1,  144,  170  n.  1. 
Premare,  Pr.  xv. 
Present  (Verdhandi,  TO  on-o),  ii.  61, 

152,  205. 

Priam,  Pramos,  ii.  84, 164. 
Priests,  i.  9, 106, 166 ;  ii.  315  319, 324- 

326,  328,  332,  336,  343,  344. 

—  four  classes  of —  in  India,  i.  9. 

—  their  contests  with  the  nobility,  ii. 
319,  328. 

—  degraded  position  of  the  Parsea 
— ,  i.  165. 

Prinsep's  theory  of  the  origin  of  the 
Indian  figures,  ii.  287,  294. 

prish,  prishat,  prishita,  ii.  86,  86 
n.  1. 

pj-isni,  ii.  86  n.  1. 

Prithivi  (p/ithvi),  the  Earth,  broad, 
i.  27,235;  ii.  71. 

privatus,  ii.  53. 

Proetos,  ii.  170. 

irpoxa;,  ii.  86  n.  1. 

Prokris,  ii.  85,  87,  88. 
Prometheus,!.  240;  ii.  179. 
Proserpina,  ii.  109,  233. 
prosie,  ii.  42. 

Protogeneia,  ii.  80,  84,  96. 
Provencal,  ii.  73. 


892 


INDEX. 


PEO 

Proverbs,  translation  of,  i.  316,  356. 
cp6( ,  irp<^{,  ii.  36,  86  n.  1. 
prush,  prushva,  prushva  (drop),  ii. 

86,  86  n.  1,  87. 
Prussian,  Old  — ,  ii.  32,  37,  42,  52. 

Ilre'puis,  ii.  134. 

pa,  ii.  157,  254. 

pullus,  ii.  42. 

pulu,  ii.  171. 

punire,  punishment,  ii.  254-256. 

pupil,  sj-mbolic  emblem  of,  i.  314. 

Purana,  Cosmogony  of  the,  ii.  3. 

—  Mythology  of  the,  ii.  75. 

—  The  Veda  and  Law  books  over- 
rule the,  ii.  316. 

puri,  ii.  40. 

Purohita  (priest),  purohitl  (priestly 

government),  ii.  325,  334. 
puru,  ii.  171. 
Pururavas,  ii.  78,  98,  100-104,  113- 

116, 118, 119,  123, 125,  330. 
purusha,  i.  284. 
Purushapura    (Pou-lou-cha-pou-lo), 

Peshawer,  i.  268. 
Purushottama,  ii.  116. 
purva,  ii.  171,  172. 
Pushan,  one  of  the  old  gods,  ii.  331. 
putra,  ii.  28  n.  1,  30. 
irOp,  ii.  271. 

Pyrrha,  jr»/po,  ii.  11,  69. 
Pythagoras,  i.  219;  ii.  10. 
Pythis,  ii.  69. 

QAHOLOM,  i.  329. 
qanhar,  ii.  21. 

quan-fang  (wife-catching),  ii.  260. 
Quatremere,  i.  93. 
quatuor,  ii.  51. 
Quax-Cho,  i.  329. 
Queen,  ii.  39. 
Quiche",  i.  309  n.  1,  323,  324,  326, 

327,  329, 332,  335,  336. 
quino,  ii.  39. 
quinque,  ii.  51. 
quirn,  ii.  44. 
qvairnus,  ii.  44. 

T>  ABENSCHLACHT,  ii.  110. 
-I.*    Race,  different,  origin  of  caste 

(ethnological  caste),  ii.  317-320, 

321,  323. 
ra.9,  ii.  39. 

Rajragriha,  i.  210,  212,  213. 
R&9anya  or  Kshatriya,  ii.  306,  335. 
Ra.9aratnaiarl,  i.  191. 
Rayarshis,  royal  bare  s,  ii.  328. 


ra//as  (Ip  che),  dust,  i.  298. 
raryata,  ii.  45. 
Ra//avali,  i.  191. 
Raghunandana,  ii.  33,  34  n.  1. 
Rahanumaee  Mazdiashna,  Guide  of 

the  worshippers  of  God,  i.  166. 
Rahat,  i.  282,  285. 
Rahula  (Ko-lo-keou-lo),  sen  of  Bui« 

dha,  Pr.  xxiv. ;  i.  258. 
Rajendralal  Mittra,  Babu,  editor  of 

the  Lalita-Vistara,  i.  197,  203,  295 

297. 
Raj  pootana,  Vakeels  of,  ii.  36  n.  2, 

37  n.  2. 
rnk,  ii.  45. 

Ram  (exalted),  i.  359. 
Ramayana,  i.  50,  67;  ii.  335. 
Rampsinitus,  story  of,  ii.  227-229. 
Ranha,  i.  154. 
rap,  ii.  100  n.  1. 

panTCd,  ii.  45. 

Rasa,  i.  154. 

Kask,  i.  79, 117, 160. 

Rasta  Khez,  i.  174. 

Rathwiskare,  i.  105. 

rava,  ii.  100. 

Ravana,  ii.  109. 

Ravenna,  battle  of,  ii.  110. 

ravi,  ii.  101. 

Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  i.  88, 127-129, 

260. 

red,  ii.  100. 
Red  Indians,  Red  Skins,  of  North 

America,  i.  309-312,  317,  322. 
redivia,  reduo,  reluvium,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
regere,  ii.  256. 
regia  potestas,  ii.  255. 
reich,  reiks,  ii.  39. 
Reinaud,  i.  256. 
Reinecke  Fuchs,  Renard  the  Fox,  ii. 

210,  267. 
Religion,  Arvan,  Pr.  xiii. ;  ii.  257. 

—  Buddhist,"  i.  189, 190  n.  1,  202. 

—  Census  difficult,  religious,  i.  159. 

—  All  important  —  sprang  up  in  th« 
East,  i.  183. 

—  classification  of,  i.  21,  23. 

—  Mankind  divided  according  to,  L 
158. 

—  of  Mexico,  Peru,  Pr.  xiii. 

—  Parsee  — ,  i.  158  sqq. 

—  Science  of,  Pr.  xi.,  xix.-xxi. ;  L 
373 

—  truth  in  all,  i.  54. 
Remus,  ii.  166. 

Rgmusat,  Abel,  Pr.  xvi.  n.  1 ;  i.  2&&, 


INDEX. 


393 


REN 

257,  261,2112  (first  Chinese  scholar 
of  his  time). 

Renan,  Ernest,  i.  337-345,  355,  357, 
360,  365-367,  369-374. 

Resurrection,  belief  in,  i.  45,  125. 

Revelation,  idea  of,  i.  17,  18,  226, 
368;  ii.  299,300. 

rex,  ii.  39,  256. 

Rhea,  ii.  151. 

Rhematic  Period,  ii.  8. 

Rhine,  treasure  of  the  Nibelunge  in 
the,  ii.  109. 

Rhyme,  i.  16. 

rhythm,  ii.  261. 

ri,  ii.  39. 

Ribhu,  ii.  126, 179, 199,  200. 

Rich,  i.  10. 

ridu-pa,  ii.  172. 

JGj0uvan,  i.  32. 

Rig-veda,  Pr.  vii.-ix.;  i.  2,  6,  8,10, 
15-17,  47,  70-72,  73.  75,  76,  78, 
97,  101,  105,  152,  155,  238,  372;  ii. 
22,  33,  34,  35,  84,  86,  90,  98,  100, 
101,  103,  108  n.  1;  126,  129-135, 
171-176,  177,  178,  180,  203,  306, 
314,  321,  322,  324-326,  328. 

—  only  real  Veda,  i.  8,  373. 

—  Veda  of  (1028)  hymns,  praise,  i. 
10,  72,110,  116,  152,372;  ii.  314, 
315. 

—  contains  10,402  to  10.622  verses, 
153,826  words,  432,000  syllables, 
i.  10,  11. 

—  age  of  the,  i.  11,  13,  74. 

—  Translation  of  the  —  (Wilson),  ii. 
326  n.  1. 

tfifcika,  ii.  333. 

riksha,  ii.  42. 

Rimmon,    worshippers    of,   i.    341, 

359. 

riogh,  ii.  39. 
tfishi,  i.7, 17,  36,  47,  75, 107-109;  ii. 

200,  300,  305,  306. 
road,  ii.  40. 

Robert  of  Reading,  ii.  291. 
Robin  Hood,  ii.  169,  259. 
Roer,    Dr.,  /iThandogya  upanishad, 

translated  by,  ii.  336  n.  2. 
rohita,  ii.  131/132. 
Rojas,  Don  Juan  de,  i.  325. 
Roman  Alphabet,  i.  322. 

—  Gesta  Romanorum,  ii.  229. 

—  language,  ii.  249. 

—  law,  ii.  254. 

—  legends,  ii.  157. 
Romance  dialects,  ii.  17-19,  60 


SAK 

Romance,  nations,  i.  361;  ii.  20. 

romasa,  ii.  98. 

Romulus,  i.  297;  ii.164,  166. 

Rosen,  Dr.  Friedrich,  i.  6;  ii.  304. 

Rosvred,  story  of,  ii.  223,  224. 

rot,  ii.  101. 

Roth,  Prof.,  i.  32  n.  1,  41  n.  '*,  47  n. 

1,85,97;  ii.  35  n.  1,86  n.  1,9? 

n.  2. 

—  Burial  in  India,  ii.  35  n.  1. 

—  Nirukta,  ii.  98  n.  2. 

ru,  ruber,  rudhira,    rufus,    ii.   100, 

Ruclaki,  ii.  225. 

Rudra,  Rudras,  Pr.  xviii.  (Siva),  i. 

34-36  (hymn  to  th>3  Maruts),  ii.  73, 

330  (created  by  Brahman). 
Rumpelstilzchen,  ii.  154. 
rupa  (form),  Rupee,  rupya  (silver), 

U*  .175. 
rusat,  ii.  175. 
Russia,  i.  233    (Buddhism   in),  iL 

252. 
Rustem,  i.  94,  95;  ii.  107. 

OABALA,  ii.  181. 

°  Sabaoth,  worshippers  of,  i.  341, 

355. 

sabara,  ii.  186  n.  2. 
Sabism,  Haran,  metropolis  of,  i.  148. 
Sacrifice,  human,  i.  57. 
Sacy,  Sylvestre  de,  ii.  225,  226.  242. 
Ssemund,  collector  of  the  Old  Edda, 

ii.  192. 

Sagal,  citv  of,  i.  285. 
sahasra  (hazanra),  sahasram,  i.  81; 

ii.  51. 

saihs,  ii.  51. 
St.  Augustine,  Pr.  xi.,  xxx. ;  i.  26, 

54. 

St.  Benedict,  ii.  212. 
St  Christopher,  ii.  163. 
St.  Cyprian,  Pr.  xxx. 
St.  Hilaire,  Barth<?!emy,  i.  179  n.  1, 

(Le  Bouddha  et  sa  Religion),  181, 

184,  186,  192,  198,  201,  202.  205, 

207,213,218,222,230,244,250. 
St  Martin,  M.  L.  Vivien  de,  i.  210 

n.  1,  271. 

St.  Patrick,  ii.  164. 
s;\k ha,  different  texts,  i.  15. 
Saktri.  ii.  334. 
Sakuntula,  i.  67. 
Sakya,  i.  183  200,  213, 214, 223, 295, 

296. 
—  clan,  fam  ly  of  the,  206,  213  214. 


INDEX. 


S.iK 

Sakya,  Mun<  (Buddha),  i.  214. 
sal,  saliia,  ii.  47. 
Sain,  is  95. 
samadhi,  i.  204. 
jSamana,  Pr.  xxiv. 
Samanians,  d3'nasty  of  the,  i.  94. 
Samanta,  lakes  of,  ii.  332. 
Samarkand,  i.  267. 
Sama-veda,  i.  8  (to   be  sung),  72, 

110. 

Sama-veda-sanhita,  i.  9, 15. 
•Sambara,  ii.  186  n.  2. 
(Sami,  ii.  201. 
Samoan  islands,  ii.  271. 
Sanhita,  collection  of  hymns,  i.  10, 

13,  109;  ii.  305,  315. 
Sankara,  ii.  ^04. 

—  Afcvrya,  ii.  339. 

Sankhya,  Pr.  xv.;  i.  214,  215,223, 
243,250,279,284. 

—  philosophy,  i.  214,  215,  243,  250, 
279,284.   " 

—  sutras,  i.  223. 

—  system,  Pr.  xv. ;  i.  222. 
Sanskrit  alphabet  (42  single  letters), 

i.  291;  ii.  288. 

—  Chinese  dictionary,  i.  288. 

—  of  the  Chinese  Buddhists,  i.  297. 

—  fables,  ii.  225. 

—  grammar,  i.  115;  ii.  252. 

—  grammarian,  ii.  133. 

—  Mythology,  ii.  73,  139. 

—  Numerals,  ii.  51,  287,  288,  294. 

—  Chinese  translations  of —  texts,  i. 
288-299. 

—  translation  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  i. 
119,  135. 

Santa  Cruz  del  Quiche",  i.  323,  336. 

Santo-Tomas  Chiehicastenango,  i. 
323. 

San  Vicente  de  Chiapas  y  Guate- 
mala, i.  323. 

Bap  (root),  sapiens,  ii.  243. 

Sapientia  Indorum  Veterum,  ii. 
225. 

Sapta,  ii.  51. 

Sapta  Hotars,  i.  106  n.  1. 

Bara,  ii.  47. 

Sarama,  Sarameya,  ii.  138  n.  2, 181, 
183. 

Sarawyu,  the  dawn,  ii.  151, 152,  179 
199. 

Sarasvati,  i.  62;  ii.  327. 

Barbara,  ii.  186  n.  2. 

Sardanapalus,  i.  100. 

•arff,  ii.  42. 


SEO 

Sariputra,  i.  212. 
sarpa,  i.  154;  ii.  42. 
sarva  (so-po),  i.  299;  ii.  172. 
sarvara,  sarvari  (night),  sarvalkii, 

ii.  180,  181. 
Sassanian,  bilingual  inscriptions  of 

the  —  emperors,  i.  89. 

—  coins,  i.  89. 

—  dynasty,  i.  87,  91,  148, 159. 

—  epoch,  i.  87  n.  1. 

—  language,  i.  90,  92. 

—  period,  i.  119,121,  153. 

—  religion  of  the,  i.  87  n.  1. 

—  translation  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  i. 
89. 

—  Zoroastrian  books  preserved  by 
the,  i.  171. 

satam,  ii.  52, 132. 

Satan,  i.  153,164;  ii.  233. 

Satapatha  brahmana,  i.  155;  ii.  328, 

331,  336. 
Sathoual,  i.  312. 
Sattra,  i.  112. 

Satvayuga,  mythical  age,  ii.  348. 
Saudasa,  ii.  334,  335. 
/Saunaka,  i.  14. 
«avara  (savara),  ii.  180. 
Savitar  (Savitri),  i.  235;  ii.  135. 
Saxon,  ii  45  (Old  — ),  188,  241,  297, 

318,  320. 

Sayana-AA-arya,  i.  6,  7,  73,  75. 
scandere  (sca[d]la),  i.  83  n.  1. 
Scandinavia,  Northmen  of,  i.  62. 
Scandinavian  Edda,  ii.  107. 

—  Folkeeventyr,  ii.  217. 

—  inhabitants  of  Norway,  ii.  223. 
Schelling,  i.  229;  ii.  144,155. 
Scherzer,  Dr.,  i.  324. 
Schlegel,  F.,  i.  67. 

Schleicher  (Formenlehre  der  Kir- 
chenslawischen  Sprache),  ii.  39 
n.  1. 

Schmidt,  J.  J.,  i.  190. 

Schoolcraft,  i.  317. 

Schuld,  schuldig,  ii.  62, 63. 

Schwanbeck,  i.  230  n.  2. 

Schwartz,  ii.  197. 

—  school  of,  ii.  349. 

Science  of  Religion,  Pr.  xi.,  xix.,  xx., 

xxi.,  xxvi. 
Scvthian  race,  Couvade  among  the, 

ii.  272  n.  1. 

—  widow  burning  am  ng    the,    I.. 
'    259. 

sea,  ii.  47,  48,  274. 
sedere,  ii.  184  n.  1. 


INDEX. 


SEI 

Seitripotti,  ii.  310. 
Selene,  i.  358;  ii.  73  (myth  of—  and 

Kmlymion),  78,  80,  83,  156. 
Seleucidie,   i.  90. 
Seleucus  Nicator,  i.  14,  220. 
Self,  subjective,  absolute,  i.  242,243. 
Belva,  ii.  29. 
Semitic  character,  i.  338. 

—  customs,  ii.  200. 

—  languages,  i.  21,   337,  352,  361, 
369,  374. 

—  monotheism,  i.  337-374. 
septem,  ii.  51. 

Septuagint,  i.  11,  130,  132,149,195 

(chronology  of  the), 
septyni,  ii.  51. 
Seraphim,  i.  154. 
Serosh,  i.  124;  ii.  133  n.  1. 
serpens,  serpent,  i.  152  ( Azhidahaka), 

153,  154  (sarpa),  329,  332;  ii.  42. 
Serv  Azad,  from  Merv,  i.  95. 
sestra,  ii.  21. 

Seven  Rivers  (India),  i.  62,  81,84; 
,  ii.  77. 

sew,  to,  ii.  44,  45. 
Bex,  ii.  51. 

Shahar  (dawn),  i.  357. 
Shahnameh,  Persian  epic  bv  Firdusi, 

i.  79,  92  (edited  by  Mohf),  95,  96, 

99  (transl.  by  Atkinson),  100;  ii. 

167. 
shall,    should,    skal,    skald,    skuld, 

skiilda,  soil,  ii.  62. 
Shamans,  Pr.  xxiv.;  i.  3,  234  n.  1, 

244  n.  1,  281. 

—  Buddhism  of  the,  Pr.  xxiv. 
Shapur  II.,  i.  159. 

shush,  ii.  51. 

She  (Book  of  Poetry,  third  King),  i. 

303,  304. 
sheep,  ii.  42. 

Shem,  i.  145, 150,  342,  358;  ii.  253. 

Shemite,  i.  361. 

Shet,  i.  359. 

Shiraz,  Gobar  figures  known  at,  ii. 

293. 

Shishne,  king  of  Egypt,  i.  183. 
shito,  ii.  43. 
Shoo  (writing),  four  Shoos  — ,  i.  303, 

304,  306. 

Shoo    (Book   of  History,    second), 

King,  i.  303,  304,  306. 
Siam,  i.  22, 193,  234. 
sibac,  i.  331. 
sibun,  ii.  51. 
iiddha,  i  215. 


Siddhanta  of  Brahmaguita,  ii.  289. 
Siddhfirtha,  name  of  Buddha  iu  his 

childhood,  i.  206.  214,  215. 
Siegbert,  ii.  110,  111. 
Sifrit,  ii.  106,  107,  111,  112. 
Sigurd,  i.  240;  ii.  106-112,  167, 187, 

194,  259. 
Sikh,  i.  179. 
Siksha,  i.  298. 
Simeon,  ii.  225. 
Sin,  consciousness,  forgiveness  of,  I 

40. 

Sinaitic  inscriptions,  i.  371. 
Sindhind,  Great,  ii.  289. 
Sindhu,  ii.  305. 

Singhalese,  i.  191-195,  198,  285. 
Sioux,  superstitions  of  the,  ii.  271. 
sister,  svasar,  qanhar,  soror,  svistai 

sestra,  siur,  ii.  21;  Weird- Si  stew 

ii.  152. 

sister-in-law,  ii.  29. 
sisu,  ii.  134. 
Sita,  ii.  109. 
CTITOS,  ii.  43. 
siuja,  ii.  44. 
siur,  ii.  21. 

Siu-to-lo  (Sudra),  i.  259. 
siv,  siuv-u,  siwu,  ii.  44. 
/Siva  (Kudra).  Pr.  xviii.;  i.  69,  70 

ii.  13,75,307,310,311. 
—  no  trace  of —  in  the  Veda,  ii.  307 
Si-yu-ki,  i.  270. 
skald,  etymology  of,  i.  83  n.  1. 
mcaAcMtr,  ii.  271. 
skand,  i.  83  n.  1. 
Skotos,  The  Krinyes  daughters  of,  ii. 

70  n.  1,  153. 

Skuld  (Future),  ii.  61, 152,  205. 
Sleeman,  Colonel,  ii.  352. 
Smerdis,  i.  127,  128. 
Smith,  Vernon,  i.  275. 
Smoking,  the  Parsis  abstain  from  i. 

168. 
Smrfti,  tradition,  i.  17;  ii.  33  n.  1, 

299. 

Sneewittchen,  ii.  154. 
snocha,  ii.  29. 
Snow-white,  ii.  223,  224. 
snur,  smisha,  ii.  29. 
sobaka,  ii.  42. 
socer,  socrus,  ii.  29. 
Sol,  ii.  79. 
Solar,  ii.  78  (race),  93  (heroes),  9« 

(deity),  107  (myth), 
solium,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
Soma  (Uorna),  i.  28,  46  (prayer  to), 


396 


INDEX. 


SOM 

103  (sacrifices  to),  104  (taste  of), 

154, 176, 235;  ii.  131, 174,  H5,  178, 

201-204,  322,  326  (guardian  of  the 

Brahman),  330. 
Somadeva,  ii.  242. 
son,  ii.  30,  150. 
son-in-law,  ii.  29. 
Song-yun,  i.  255. 

Sonne,  ii.  83  n.  2, 103  n.  1,175, 177. 
Sono  (I  am),  sum  (sunt),  sunt,  soy, 

son,  suis  (I  am),  ii.  17,  see  sum, 

18. 

Sophia,  i.  91. 
Bophos,  ii.  213. 
soror,  ii.  21. 

South  Sea,  i.  51 ;  ii.  271. 
BOW,  su,  ii?,  sus,  su,  svinia,  suig,  ii. 

42. 

spa,  <r7ra/<a,  ii.  42. 
Spain,  Couvade  in  — ,  ii.  272,  274, 

279. 

—  Iberians  of  North,  ii.  272. 

—  Invasion   of  the   Mohammedans 
into,  ii.  285. 

Speir,  Mrs.,  i.  253. 

Spell,  Fate  and,  i.  240. 

Spentomainyu,  i.  138. 

spider  (urwanabha,  dpd^vri.  aranea), 

ii.45. 
Spiegel,  i.  32  n.  1,  82  n.  1,  84,  86  n. 

1,89-92,  117,  119,  122,  135,  136, 

138  n.  1,  143-157  (Eran). 
gpiritus  lenis,  ii.  86  n.  2. 
Spottiswoode,  i.  233  n.  1. 
Sprenger  ( Das  Leben  .Mahommad's), 

5.  215  n.  1. 
Spring,      mythological      traditions 

about  the,  ii.  232. 
araddha,  i.  42. 
wamana,  i.  204,  205,  233  n.  2,  259 

(Chavnen). 
Sravaka,  i.  203. 
Sravas  (/cAeos,  cluo),  i.  259. 
Sravasti,    i.    204,    213    (capital    of 

Kosala),  259. 

firotriva  (Srauti),  i.  103;  ii.  345. 
Sruti  "Revelation,  i.  17;  ii.  299. 
frvarn,  ii.  186  n.  2. 
stairo,  stairi,  orerpa  (sterilis),  ii.  42. 
Stan-gyour,  i.  234  n.  3. 
stare,  ii.  61. 
Sthana  ^place),  i.  299. 
Starkius,  ii.  225. 
steer,  sthura,  staora,  raGpos,  taurus, 

stiur,  taura-s,  tour,  tor,  ii.  42. 
Stevenson,  Dr.,  ii.  320. 


sthavira  (thaira,  elder),  ii.  303. 

Stone- Age,  ii.  282. 

Storiology,  ii.  247. 

Storms   ("Maruts),  i.  27,  68,  97;   ii 

58. 
Strabo,  Couvade  mentioned  by,  ii. 

272. 

Straparole,  ii.  228. 
Stromata  of  Clemens,  Pr.  xxix.  n. 

1,2;  i.  230  n.  1,  362  n.  1. 
Sturlason,   Snorro,   collector  of  the 

Young  Kdcla,  ii.  192. 
Styx,  ii.  70  n.  1. 
tu,  to  beget,  root   of  sunii,  sunufl 

suta,  ii.  25,  28  n.  1. 
Subjunctive,  i.  78. 
Subrahmanya,  i.  106. 
Succoth-benoth,  worshippers  of^  i. 

341. 

Sudas,  ii.  325,  334. 
Suddhirattava,  ii.  34  n.  1. 
/Sud.lhodana,i.  233,  284. 
Sudra,  blouse,  i.  163,  164. 
Suclra  (Siu-to-lo),  i.  252,  259;  ii.  179, 

305,  306,  315,  318,  321,  329-331, 

337-342,  345,  346,  350,  353. 

—  Vedic  authority  for  the  degraded 
position  of  the  — .  ii.  305. 

—  was  born  from  the  feet  of  Brah- 
man, ii.  306. 

—  modern  word,  only  once  used  in 
the  Veda,  ii.  306,  321. 

—  on    marriages    between    S.    and 
Aryas,  see  iMarriages. 

—  the  color  of  the  S.  is  said  to  be 
black,  ii.  321. 

—  called  in  Tamil,  the  Petta  Pittel, 
children  of  the  House,  ii.  353 

—  Dynasties,  ii.  339. 
Sudraka,  ii.  36  n.  1. 
Sufi,  Sufiism,  i.  182,  276. 
£u£i,  ii.  175. 

sum  (I  am),  asmi,  esmi,  ahmi,  «/i/*«, 
ycsme,  iin,  em,  ii.  18;  see  sono  (I 
am),  17. 

Sun,  names  of  the  — ,  Surva,  Savitri, 
Vishnu,  Mitra,  Eros,  (Jrvasi,  Ar- 
vat,  i.  235;  ii.  84,  131,  224,  245, 
246. 

—  religion  of  <he,  i.  236. 

—  worshippers  of  the  sun,  i.  341. 

—  William  Tell,  last  reflection  of  tha 
sun -god,  ii.  232. 

sunn,  sunus,  ii.  28  n.  1. 
sunya  (Nought),  ii.  284. 
suuyata,  annihilation,  i.  278. 


INDEX. 


397 


S&N 

Sflnyavadin,  i.  281. 

Buparna,  ii.  134. 

Superstitions,  ii.  271. 

Eupplicium,  ii.  254. 

Supvabuddha,  i.  206. 

Surinam,  Arawaks  of,  ii.  276. 

Surya  (sun),  i.  27,  235;  ii.  73,  131. 

Susravas,  i.  33. 

suta,  ii.  25. 

Sutra  (Aphorism),  i.  10,  12-14,  17, 
74,  102,  107,  108,  111,  179,  193, 
220,  224,  280,  284,  303;  ii.  44, 173, 
302. 

—  period,  i.  14,  220. 

—  of  Kapila,  i.  224. 

—  discourses  of  Buddha,  i.  193,  280, 
284. 

—  compiled  bv  Ananda,  i.  280. 

—  of  the  Jains,  i.  179. 

Suttee  (widow,  burning),  ii.  33,  36  n. 

2,  37  n.  2. 

svabhavat,  by  itself,  i.  278. 
Svablu\vika,"i.  278. 
Bvadharmatikrama,  ii.  336. 
svaihra,  svaihro,  ii.  29. 
svaw/ra,  ii.  129. 
Svara  ( Hera),  ii.  177. 
svasar,  ii.  21,  24. 
rvasru,  svasura,  ii.  29. 
sva^ti,  joy,  happiness,  ii.  24. 
Svayamblui,  self-existing,  i.  347. 
svekr,  svekrvj,  ii.  29. 
«veta,  ii.  43,  99  n.  1. 
Svetaketu  Anineya,  ii.  336. 
Swabian  dynasty,  i.  16. 

—  epic  (Nibelunge),  ii.  187. 
Swanhild,  ii.  111. 

Sweden,  i.  233  (Buddhism  in),  234 

n.  1;   ii.  237,  252  (language  of), 

255. 

Swendsen,  Brynjulf,  ii.  192. 
Swift,  ii.  92. 
sword,  ii   46. 
Byala,  syali,  ii.  29,  32. 
*vava,  it.  132. 
S'ykes,  Colonel,  i.  275. 
Sylvester  II.,  Pope,  ii.  285. 
Synonyms,   ii.    71;    synonomv,    ii. 

"71. 
Sj'riac    translations    of   Greek  and 

Christian  writers,  i.  90. 
Syrinx,  ii.  157. 
szeszi,  ii.  51. 
Bzimtas,  ii.  51. 
uu.  ii.  42. 


THA 

,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
-"-    Ta  Heo,  Great  Learning,  second 

(Shoo),  i.  304,  306. 
taihun,  taihun  taihund,  ii.  51. 
Taittiriya-sanhita,  ii.  134  n.  1. 
takshan,  ii.  40. 
Tamil,  i-193  (conquerors  of  Ceylon), 

ii.  '^(,  353;  Tamulian  people,  ii. 

172. 

Tamor  of  Sathoual,  i.  312. 
Tanjur  (Bstan-hgyur,  Tan-gyur),  L 

189. 

Tantra,  i.  234;  ii.  302,  307. 
Taoism,  Chinese  religion,  i.  50. 
Taoist,  i.  179. 

Tao-sse,  temple,  i.  212  n.  1. 
Tao-te  King,  i.  179. 
Tar,  derivative  suffix,  ii.  22,  31. 

rdpao-cra,  rapaL(r<reiv,  ii.  48. 

Tartak,  worshippers  of,  i.  341. 

Tartars,  manners  of  the,  ii.  270. 

Tartar-Khan,  i.  265. 

Tatis,  caste  of  the,  ii.  345. 

Tauler,  i.  277. 

taurus,  raCpoj,  H.  42,  see  steer. 

Taxila  inscriptions,  ii.  293. 

Tcha-li  (Kshattriya),  i.  259. 

Tchou-fa-lan,  i.  254. 

Tecum,  i.  325. 

Te'icTwf,  ii.  42. 

Tell,  William,  ii.  169,  232. 

Temptation  and  fall  of  man,  i.  151. 

ten,  ii.  223. 

tenere,  auxiliary  verb  in  Spanish,  ii. 
60. 

Teo  Amoxtli,  sacred  book  of  th« 
Toltecs,  i.  326. 

Tepepul,  i.  325. 

Tepi,  ii  214. 

Terah,  i.  147  n.  1, 155, 340  (descend- 
ants of),  363. 

Teraphim,  i.  363. 

Tesoro  de  las  Lenguas  Quiche1,  Cak- 
chiquel  v  Tzutohil,  i.  323. 

TesteVa,  i."316. 

TeVrape?,  ii.  51. 

Tetzcuco,  royal  family  of,  i.  321. 
Teutonic  gods,  i.  23^  183;   ii.  187 
233. 

—  laws,  ii.  259. 

—  mvths,   mythology,   Pr.  xii.'    i 
240;  ii.  13,"76,  193,"  259. 

textus,  i.  303. 
flaWao,  ii.  48,  79. 
Tt  anatos,  ii.  64. 


398 


INDEX. 


TUB 

Thebes,  Talcs  of  T.  and  Argos,  ii. 

154. 

detiv,  ii.  149. 

Theism,  Henotheism,  i.  347. 
e«Xu,,  i.  96. 
Themanites,  i.  371. 
Theodoric  the  Great,  ii.  110, 112. 
Theodorus,  i.  371. 
Theodotus,  i.  371. 
Theogony,  ii.  66,  76,  82, 182. 

—  of  Hesiod,  i.  65  n.  2,  76. 

—  the  Veda  is  the — of  the  Aryan 
races,  i.  76. 

e<r<k  (0«u),  i.  238,  365;  ii.  149  (ety- 
mology of). 
0>ip,  i.  96". 
Theseus,  ii.  169. 
Thetis,  ii.  32.  79. 
Theuth,  ii.  70. 
Thibet,  Buddhism  in,  i.  254;  ii.  339. 

—  Lama  of—,  i.  187. 

—  languages  of,  i.  22. 

—  Buddhist  literature  of,  i.  196. 
Thibetan  translation  of  the  Buddhist 

Canon,  i.  188. 
Thlinkithians,  i.  334. 
Thor,  ii.  189,  190. 
ftia-'f.  ii-  184  n.  1. 
Thoth.  i.  219. 
Thracians,  burning  of  widows  among 

the.  ii.  259. 

—  Couvade  among  the  (6pif')cia,l0ioj), 
ii.  272  n.  1. 

Thraetaona    (Feridun),    i.   96-100, 

151,155;  ii.  167. 
Ihreis,  ii.  51. 
Thrinakia,  ii.  163. 
Tlirita,  i.  176. 
Thugs,  i  273. 
Thuringia,  ii.  110,  222. 
Ihusundi,  ii.  52. 
Ovyarnp,  ii-  21,  74. 
6vpa,  ii.  40. 
Tibareni  (Ti^opijw?   ?<«<*),  Couvade 

among  the,  ii.  274. 
Tigris,  i.  99, 140  n.  1,  143, 145. 
Till  Eulenspiegel,  ii.  210. 
timrjan,  ii.  39. 
Tinnevelly,  i  301. 
Tirthaka,"i.  280  n.  1. 
TC^WU,  ii.  149. 
Tithonos(the  setting  sun)  i.  357.  ii. 

84,104,  157. 
Tcbit,  i.  145, 146. 
Todd,  Colonel  ii.  36  n.  2. 


TVA 

Toltec,  Teo-Amoxtli,  sacied  book  of 
the.  i.  326- 

Torelore,  king  of,  ii.  273. 

Torngarsuk,  the  land  of  perpetual 
summer,  ii.  264. 

To/aka,  i.  296. 

Totem,  crest  of  an  Indian  warrior,  i. 
313. 

Trachys,  ii.  88. 

trahere  (traire).  ii.  24. 

Traitana,  i.  98-100. 

tra:var»ika,  ii.  176. 

Transmigration  and  metempsy- 
chosis, i.  199. 

trayas,  ii.  51. 

Trees,  the  two  Trees,  in  the  Garden 
of  Kden,  the  Gaokereua,  and  the 
Painless  tree,  i.  154. 

tres,  rpeis,  li.  51. 

Treta-age,  ii.  330. 

rpuceJaAos,  ii.  183. 

Tripitaka  (the  Three  Baskets),  Pr. 

xi.,  xiv.;  i.  23,  179, 184,  280,  281 

n.  1. 

Tpi<TioM<iTo?,  ii.  183. 
Trita,  i.  96,  97;  ii.  167. 
Trithen,  Prof.,  ii.  180. 
TpiVo?,  ii.  105  n.  1. 
Tritsus,    Vasisli^/m    leader    of    the 

white-robed,  ii.  334. 
Trojan  war,  i.  327 ;  ii.  84,  154,  162. 
Troy,  ii.  82,  84,  164. 
trvs",  ii.  51,  224. 
Tsal-in,  i.  254. 

Tshiroki  alphabet,  ii.  210  n.  1. 
Tuck,  Friar,  ii.  1G9. 
tuggo,  ii.  184  n.  1. 
tiiisasta,  ii.  52. 
tukstantis,  ii.  52. 
Tulan,  town  of,  i.  335,  336. 
tun  (town),  zaun,  ii.  27. 
Turanian,  Allophylic  or  —  tribes,  ii. 

253. 

—  languages,   i.  21 ;  ii.  8,   71  n.  1, 
176  n.  1,  253. 

—  religion,  i.  22,  341. 

Turas,  a  class  of  Sudras,  ii.  345. 

Turkic,  Turkish,  i.  22,  91. 

Turkistan,  i.  271. 

Tumour,  i.  186, 190-192, 196, 252,n.  i 

Turvaytlna,  i.  32. 

tusimtons,  ii.  52. 

tvai,  tvaitigjus,  tva-lif,  ii  51. 

tvaksh  (taksh),  i.  132. 

Tvashter,  ii.  327. 

Tylor,  researches  into  the  Early  Hi* 


INDEX. 


399 


TYf 

tory   of  Mankind,    ii.    112  n.  1, 

248-283. 

Typhoon,  ii.  182, 183. 
Tvphon,  ii.  2. 
Tzakol,  i.  3-29. 
Tze-Kung,  i.  308. 
Tze  tze,  i.  305. 
Tzite  tree,  i.  331. 
Tzutohil,  i.  323. 

UDGATAK,  i.  105,  106  n.  1. 
Udumbara,  i.  203  n.  1. 
Uocayinf,  ii.  2.40. 
U&iakanyana,  ii.  211,  212,  213. 
U/dakula,  ii.  215. 
ukhshan.  ukshan,  ii.  42. 
Ukuhlonipa,  ii.  215. 
Ullilas,  i.  21,  79,  90;  ii.  249. 
Ulvsses,  Ulyxes,  ii.   163,   184  n.   1, 

i93,  232. 
line,  ii.  42. 

Unity  of  God,  i.  339,  365. 
Universe,  emanation  from  Brahman, 

i.  226;  205,  303. 
Unknown  God  in  Greece,!.  239. 
unus,  undecini,  ii.  51. 
Upali,   compiler  of  the  Vinaya  of 

the  Tripifeka,  i.  280. 
Upanishad,  i.  242;  ii.  204,  336. 
Upliam,  Ed.,  i.  191. 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  i.  147  n.  1, 148. 
ura,   ura-bhra    (laniger),    uramathi 

(wolf),  urana(ram),  urani  (sheep), 

urana  (protector);    ii.  173,    174, 

173  ;  see  urna. 
Uranos  (Varuna),  i.  355,  360;  ii.  11, 

22,  65,  66. 
Ilrna  (wool),  urwanabha,  uroa-nabhi, 

urna-vabhi  (spider),  urnavu  (goat, 

spider),  ii.  45, 173-175. 
uro,  ii  137  n.  2. 
ursus,  ii.  42. 
uru  (eupv),  tirii&i,  ii.  98. 
Uruvilva,  i.  211. 
urva,  urvi,  urvivA,  ii   71,  98,  99. 
Ur-asl,  i.  235;  ii.  98-104,  113-117, 

119,120,122-125. 
ush,  ushna,  usra,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
Uslia,  ii.  136. 
Ushapati,  ii.  136. 
Ushas  (dawn),  i.  27,  36  (hymn  to), 

68,  78;  Ushiisa( Aurora),  235,355; 

ii.  99,  100,  128,  135, 137  n.  2, 179. 
Usikulumi,  ii.  213. 
Ut«  (hell),  i.  42  n.  1. 
Uzembcni,  ii.  213. 


VED 

TTAGASANEYIN,  i.  83  n.  1. 

Vaiileha,  caste  of  the,  ii.  341. 
Vaidya,  caste  of  the,  ii.  341,  342. 
Vai.4kha,  month,  i.  112. 
Vaisal!,  i.  210,  213. 
Vaisya  (householder),  caste  of  the, 

ii.  37,  306,  321.  323,  330,  331,  338. 

340-342,  K46,  353. 
— from  the  thighsof  Brahman, ii.  306. 

—  color  of  the  V.  is  yellow,  ii.  321. 

—  or  Arya,  forms  the   bulk  of  the 
Brahmanic  society,  ii.  323. 

—  the  Vaisya  caste  in  modern  India, 
ii.  340. 

Vaiva-svata,  i.  46. 

Vawzsar/a,  ii.  345. 

Vangj'ida,  i.  32. 

vap,  ve,  wab  (to  weave),  ii.  44. 

var,  vri  (root),  ii.  65,  127,  173, 174. 

vari,  ii.  48. 

variyasi,  ii.  99. 

vama  (color,  caste),  ii.  175, 176,  297. 
321. 

Yarnasahkaras,  mixed  castes,  ii. 
340. 

vami,  gold,  ii.  175. 

Varuwa  (Uranos),  i.  27,  28  (hymn 
to),  38-44,  47,  235,  355,  358/302, 
373;  ii.  22,  65,  97,  99,  179,  308, 
309, 345,  (created  by  Brahman). 

varvara,  ii.  172,  173,  177. 

vas  (vasis),  vasum,  ii.  133. 

—  vas  (van,  ushi,  vat),  ii.  130. 

vas  (root),  ii.  87  n.  2,  137  n.  2. 

Vasishf/ia,  i.  36,  40;  ii.  100  (superla- 
tive of  vasu),  101,  308  (cow  of), 
325,  334,  335. 

Vasra,  ii.  177. 

vasti,  vastra,  vestis,  ivQrjs,  fassradh, 

gwisk,  ii.  44. 
vastu  (JOT"),  ii.  40. 
vasu,  bright,  Superlative  Vasish^a, 

ii.  99. 

Vasu,  ii.  131,  327,  330. 
vasupati,  ii.  108. 

—  vat  (van,  vati,  vat),  ii.  130. 
vatsa,  ii.  42. 

Veda,  oldest  Book  of  the  Aryans,  i 
4, 5,  24. 

—  revealed  by  Brahman,  therefor* 
called  Sruti  (revelation),  1'r.  i. :  i. 
17;  ii.  299,  300. 

—  of  the  highest  authority  for  the 
religion   of  the   Brahmans,  ii.   299, 

300,  303,  316. 

—  few  Brahmans  can  read  and  un- 


INDEX. 


VED 

derstand  it,  and  none  could  edit  it, 
ii.  300,  305. 

Veda,  caste,  no  authority  for  the  sys- 
tem of  the  castes  in"  the,  ii.  305, 
306. 

—  English  translation  of  the,  ii.  305. 

—  idea  of  faith  in  the   Veda,  i.  36, 
41. 

—  fourVedas,  i.  8. 

—  hvmns  and  songs  of  the,  i.  4,  25, 
26",  121,  220;  ii.  44,  76,  132,  152, 
201,  204,  232,  305,  306,  308,  328. 

—  belief  in  personal  immortality  in 
the,  i.  45;  ii.  263. 

—  Language  of  the,  ii.  18,  21,  257, 
301. 

—  Language  and   Grammar  of  the 
Veda  different  from  the  common 
Sanskrit,  ii.  301. 

—  Life  after  death,  pravers  for,  ii. 
263. 

—  Marriage  on,  see  Marriage. 

—  No  metempsychosis  in  the,  i.  44. 

—  mvths,  mythology  of  the,  ii.  76, 
97." 

—  formerly  only  One  Veda,  ii.  330. 

—  on   Widow  burning,  see    Suttee, 
Widow. 

Vedanta,  Pr.  xv.;  (system)   i.   226, 

276;  ii.  303  (philosophy). 
Vedantin,  i.  22(5. 
Vedic  (Vaidik),   Calendar,    i.  112, 

113 

—  Ceremonial,  i.  Ill ;  ii.  34. 

—  paradise,  ii.  200,  201. 

—  period,  i.  70;  ii.  199,  315,  337. 

—  sacritices,  i.  102-105. 

—  Theogonv  and    Cosmogony   (by 
Muir),  i.  41  n.  1. 

Vega,  Garcilaso  de  la,  ii.  112  n.  1. 

Vei  alphabet,  ii.  210  n.  1. 

veihs,  ii.  38. 

vellere,  ii.  174. 

vellus,  villus,  volna,  vulla,  ii.  174. 

Vena,  caste  of  musicians,  called  so 

from  Vina,  lyre,  ii.  341. 
Vendidad,  i.  84,  86  n.  1,  87  n.  1, 118, 

145, 164,  171,  174, 177. 
Venus,  ii.  162. 

Verdhandi  (  Present),  ii.  61, 152, 205. 
Verona  or  Bern,  ii.  110. 
verto,  ii.  61. 
vesa  (house),  ii.  38. 
Vesta,  ii.  137  n.  2. 
vest.fi,  ii.  14. 
Veytia,  i.  320, 


TUB 

vicus,  ii.  38. 

vid,  ii.  87  n.  1,  249. 

Videha,  ii.  328,  329,  336,  341. 

vi-dhava,  husbandless,  ii.  32,  53. 

vidua,     viduare,    viduus,     viduvo, 

vdova,  widow,  ii.  32,  53. 
vidvan,  vidushi,  ii.  133. 
Vieh,  ii.  25. 
vieo,  ii.  44. 
viginti,  ii.  51. 

Viffiiana-Bhikshu,  i.  224  n.  1. 
Villemain,  i.  186. 
villosus,  villus,  i.  174,  176, 177  n.  1, 

178. 

vfna,  the  lyre,  ii.  341. 
Vinaya  (first   basket  of  the  Tripi- 

faka),  compiled  by  Upali,  i.  193 

280. 

Vingolf,  ii.  194. 
vinsati,  ii.  51. 
Viraf,  i.  91. 
Vis,  vaisva,  ii.  37,  323. 
Vishnu,  Pr.  xviii.;  i.  69,  71,  235;  ii. 

13,  33  n.  1,  75,  116,  307,  310. 
Vishmtsarman,  ii.  242. 
Vishuvat,  equator  or  central  day,  i. 

112. 
Vispaiti,    vispati,    vispatni,    ii.    38 

323. 
Visparad  or   Vispered,  i.   118,  171 

174,  177. 

Vistara  (Vistara),  i.  298. 
Vistasp  Nusk,  i.  171. 
Visvamitra,  ii.  325, 328,  333, 334, 337. 
Visve  Devas,  ii.  328,  330. 
vltaprish<Aa,  ii.  129. 
vitulus,  ii.  42. 

Vivada-bhangarnava,  ii.  34  n.  1. 
Vivanhvat,  Vivasvat,  i.  95,  96,  176- 

ii.  335  (father  of  Manu). 
Volcker,  ii.  105  u.  1. 
Voss,  ii.  142- 
Vratyas,  ii.  329. 
vrika,  ii.  42, 173. 
vrish,  ii.  86. 
vrishan,  ii.  99  n.  1,  134. 
Vrit,  ii.  61. 
vritha,  ii.  177  n.  1. 
Vritra,  i.  31,  n.  1, 152  (fight  between 

Imlra  and  — ),  153;  ii.  93,  178, 179 

182,  183,  136. 
Vulcanus,  i.  354;  A.  162. 
vulf,  ii.  42. 
Vulgate,  i.  130. 
vulla,  ii.  174. 
Vurdh,  ii.  61, 152,  205. 


INDEX. 


401 


VYA 

Vy&ghra.  ii.  289. 

Vyakarana  ( Ho-kia-lo1),  i.  298. 

Vyasa,  ii.  310 

WABOJEEG,  Adjetatig  of,  i.  313. 
Walid  Klmlif,  ii.  288. 
Walton,  Bryan,  i.  132. 
Warburton,"  i.  45. 

War-ru-gu-ra  (evil  spirit),  i.  42  n.  1. 
weave,  to,  ii.  44. 
Weber,  A  ,  i.  97. 
Wedding-ring,  ii.  279. 
Weird  sisters  ii.  152. 
Welcker  (Greek  mythology),  ii.  137 

n.  2,  142-153,  155,  1<J8. 
Weniaininow,  i.  334. 
werden,  ii.  61. 

Weslevan  missionary,  i.  192,  217. 
Westergaard,   i.   84,"  117,   120,  122, 

143,  160,  251  n.  1. 
West  Highlands,  Popular  tales  of  the 

—  (J.  F.  Campbell),  ii.  237-247. 
West  Indies,  Couvade  in  the,  ii.  277, 

279. 

wheat,  ii.  43. 
wich,  ii.  38. 
Widow,    vi-dha\'A,    vidua,   viduvo, 

leadbh,  vdova,  widdewu,  i.  57;  ii. 

32-37,  25!t,  307,  30!),  312-314. 

—  on —  burning   (Wilson,  Grimm, 
Roth    Bushby),   i.   57:  ii.  32-37, 
259,  307,  309." 

—  the  Kig-veda  does  not  enforce  the 
burning  of—,  ii.  34,  309. 

—  marriage   not   prohibited  by  the 
Veda,  ii.  307,  309,  312-314. 

wienas,  wieno  lika,  ii.  51. 
wiesz-patis    (lord),    wiesz  -  patene 

(lady),  ii.  38,323. 
Wife,  capture  of  wives,  ii.  260. 
Wild  Huntsman  (Grand  Veneur),  ii. 

231. 

wilka-s,  ii.  42. 
Wilkes,  i.  58. 
Wilkins,  i.  66. 
Wilson,  H.  H.,  i.  7,  30  n.  1,  34  n.  1, 

73  (translation  of  the  Kig-veda), 

116,  202,214,  2-22,278,292;  ii.  33  n. 

1,  (on  widow  burning),  35  n.  1,  36 

n.  1,  113  n.  1,  299,  32(5  n.  1,  330. 
Wilson,  Dr.,  in  Bombay,  i.  301. 
Wind,  Fan,  pavaria,  ii.  157. 
Windisclnnann,  i.  140  n.  1, 150, 154; 

ii.   168,   168  n.  2,  4  (Zoroastrian 

studies). 
Winning,  ii.  48  n.  1. 

VOL.  n.  26 


TIM 

Winter,  ii.  57,  232. 

wissen,  ii.  249. 

wiz,  ii.  43. 

Wodan.  i.  23,  183,  219;  ii.  259. 

Woepcke  (Me'moire  sur  la  Propaga- 
tion des  Chiffres  Indiens).  ii.  284- 
294. 

wolf,  i.  47  (the  destroying);  ii.  42. 

Woman,  marriage  and  position  o! 
the  —  in  India,  ii.  312,  346.  349. 

Wordsworth,  ii.  57,  58, 104, 119  n.  1. 

worship,  to,  ii.  257. 

Wrangel,  i.  334. 

Wuotan,  ii.  85. 

XBALANQUE,  i.  332. 
Xenophanes,  i.  362. 
Xibalba,  i.  331;  ii.  268,  269. 
Ximenes,   Father  Francisco,  i.  323, 
324,  325  (Tesero  de  las   LenguM 
Quiche",   Cakchiquel  y   Tzutohil), 
323. 
t^ov,  ii.  92  n.  1. 

Y"AC8AVALKYA,  ii.  329,336. 
•*•      Ya</ur-veda,  i.  8,  9  (to  be  mut- 
tered), 72,  108,  110;  ii.  101,  314. 

Yayur-veda-sanhita,  i.  9,15. 

Ya'gya,  i.  108,  109. 

Yak,  i.  203  n.  1. 

Yama  (Yinia),  i.  28,47  (Article  on 
—  by  Ur.  Muir,  47  n.  1,  96,  97, 
150/238,  362;  ii.  97,  181,  199,  200, 
202,  203.  330. 

Yamuna,  ii.  305. 

Yarkand,  i.  271. 

Yuska,  i.  73,  74,  82  n.  1. 

Yasua,  i  86  n.  1,  119, 122,  136,  143 
174,  176, 177. 

—  Commentaries   on  —  (by   Bur- 
nouf),  119,  122,  143. 

yataras,  ii.  29. 
vava,  ii.  43. 
Yaxartes,  i.  266. 
Yazashne,  i.  171. 
veh,  ii.  42. 
Yemen,  i.  340. 
Yen-thsong,  i.  232  n.  1. 
Yesht,  i.  86  n.  1. 
Yezd  i.  87,  92, 159. 

—  Number  of  Parsis  in,  i.  159. 
Yezdegird,  i.  93. 
Yggdrasil,  ii.  202,  204,  205. 

Yin  (Book  of  Changes,  first),  King, 

i.  303.  304. 
Yima-Kshaeta,  i.  96. 


402 


INDEX. 


TOD 

rodha  (warrior),  li.  27. 
Yogin,  i.  181,  225. 
voni.  ii.  35  n.  1,  36. 
Yuga  of  the  Brahmans,  the  four,  i. 

151. 

Yupanqui,  ii.  112  n.  1. 
Yunnan,  ii.  272. 
Yuvasa,  ii.  98. 

yABD  (present),  i.  353. 
Li     Zabd-allah.  i.  353. 
ZaI.  i.  95. 
Zaotar,  i.  105. 

Zarathustra,  i.  86,  88-90,  95,  121, 
124,  151  (see  Zoroaster). 

—  his  language,  i.  88,  95. 

—  his  doctrine,  i.  88. 
Zarthosti  Community,  i.  169. 
Zarvan,  i.  91. 

Zaun  (tun,  town),  ii.  27. 

Zasi-s,  ii.  42. 

#a,  ii.  43. 

fiv,  to  live,  ii.  149. 

Zijx  (Zen),  Zjfr,  ii.  149, 157  (see  Zeus). 

zena,  ii.  39. 

Zend,  i.  80-83,  85-88,  95,  116-122, 
126-13!),  143,  145,  156,  157,  161, 
164, 165, 169;  ii.  18,  19,  21,  42,  43, 
51,  133  n.  1,  167,  185. 

—  an  artificial  language  (  ?),  i.  80. 

—  its  relation  to  Sanskrit,  i.  81,  82. 

—  its  numerals  up  to  1,000,  i.  81. 

—  origin  of  the  name  — ,  i.  82. 

—  its  relation  to  the  language  of  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions,  i.  87. 

—  its  grammar,  i.  118. 
Zend-Avesta,  Pr.  xi.,xiv.;  i.  23,  24, 

61,  78,  79-100,  126,  130,  131. 134- 
136,  139-157,  160,  164-170,  174- 
177,  179, 184,  373;  ii.  33, 167  n.  1, 
186  n.  2,  202,  208. 

—  reduced  to  writing  before  Alex- 
ander, i.  80,  88. 

—  composed  in  the  eastern  provinces 
of  Persia,  i.  146. 

Zenodotus,  i.  371. 


ZTJR 

zephiro  (nought),  ii.  284. 

Zerdusht,  i.  90  (see  Zoroaster). 

zerno,  zernov,  ii.  43. 

zero  (zephiro),  ii.  284. 

Zeus  (Zev«),  i.  23,25,  78,  237,  239, 
240,353,  354,  358-360,  362,  365; 
ii.  1,  11,  14,  15,  21,  66,  70,  72,  78, 
80,  83,  88,  97  n.  1,  111,  134,  137  n. 
2, 146-151,  162, 179, 193,  222. 

zlato,  zoloto,  ii.  46. 

Zoega,  ii.  142. 

Zohak,  i.  97,  99;  ii.  167,  168. 

Zoheyr,  Moallaka  of,  i.  372. 

Zoroaster  (see  Zarathustra  and  Zer- 
dusht, Zurthosth),  i.  23,  25,  80,  86, 
88, 117,  120,  121,  125,  142,  146- 
149,  156,  158,  159,  161,  164,  168, 
171,  175, 176,  219,  373;  ii.  249. 

—  born  in  Arran  V  i.  146. 

—  writings  of,  i.  117. 

—  followers  of  (fire  worshippers),  i. 
159. 

—  faith  of,  i.  159. 

—  teaching  of,  i.  175 
Zoroastrians,  their  abode  in  India,  i. 

84. 

—  ancestors  of  the,  ii.  52. 

—  their  books,  read  by  Hermippus,  i. 
88. 

—  destroyed  by  Alexander,  i.  88, 171. 

—  their  ceremonial,  i.  105. 

—  their  gods,  i.  83. 

—  their  paiadise,  i.  153. 

—  their  religion,  Pr.  xi. ;  i.  135,  152, 
171. 

—  their  sacred  writings,  Pr.  xxxii. ; 
i.  160,  184. 

—  their  separation  from  the  worship- 
pers of  the  Vedas,  i.  82. 

Zulu,  Pr.  xx.;  ii.  206-216. 

—  Nursery  Tales,  ii.  206-216. 

—  Animal  fables  among  the  — ,  ii. 
210. 

Zurthosht,  i.  164, 170  ( Asphantaman 
Anoshirwan),  172,  173  (see  Zoro- 
aster). 


